The Sailor Soldiers future: where are they now?
by Diamond snow
Summary: This is a story loosely based on the book called 'Parallel Sailor Moon'. We get a recap on what happened to our Sailor Soldiers after they defeated Galaxia. I changed the names of the Soldier's daughters since I found it weird that they would have the same name as their mothers. Read and review please! Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.
1. Chapter 1: Ami Mizuno

The Sailor Soldiers future – where are they now?

I have been a fan of Sailor Moon since I was 14-15, which will make it nine years this year. Before you ask me why I was not a fan as a child…we did not have the anime in my country. The first time I heard about them was when I visited a girl named Fiona in Spain in 2003 (whoa – can't believe how long it has been! It feels like yesterday). She showed me a poster of them, I got back to my home country, googled it up and voila! I became a fan overnight.

These stories are mostly based on the sequel "Parallel Sailor Moon" where we meet the Sailor Soldiers children. Hotaru and Sailor Mini Moon/Chibi Moon/Rini are in high school there as well. I decided to set it roughly at present since the inner soldiers should be 33-34 years old in 2012 (they were borne in 1978 according to the bios). Haruka/Amara and Michuru/Michelle on the other hand will be 36-37 whereas Hotaru's age is approximately 25. I KNOW she is probably borne earlier but she was reborn and all that. She appeared to be about seven-eight years old after the first growth spurt in Stars, which should find place in 1994-1995 since the inner sailors are 16 years old. I changed the names on the sailor's daughters since they had the same names as their mothers in the manga.

Things to look out for:

Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Soka university, Toita Women's college, Le Cordon Bleu and Bunkyo Gakuin university: Universities, women's college and culinary school based in Tokyo.

Naha: The "capital" of the Okinawan islands (kind of like Honolulu in Hawaii).

Osaka Central hospital and Kosei Nenkin hospital: Hospitals in Osaka.

First up in our series is Ami Mizuno! What has happened in her life since we left the sailors in the Star season?

* * *

**Chapter one: The sailor of water and knowledge.**

"Thank you doctor Mizuno!" stated the middle-aged woman as she left the office. "You are welcome Maeda-san" I replied with a smile when my patient left. Once the door closed, I let out a small sigh. Today had been a relatively busy day at the hospital I worked at. Osaka Central hospital was a rather large institution, but it was less stressing than Tokyo was.

'I wonder what time it is' I thought as I looked over at the clock. The numbers told me that the current time was 07:50 PM. My eyes widened slightly as I realized that I was off my shift in just ten minutes. One of my colleagues had called in sick, so I volunteered to take his appointments that evening. 'Maybe I should just pack my stuff now' I thought as I looked around. Most of the office was quite clean since I was quite a neat freak sometimes. So much for being a Virgo with A as my blood type I suppose. Rain was pelting down from the skies, hitting the window pane that provided me with a decent view of Osaka city center. I enjoyed living in Osaka despite that there were rumors saying that it was a bit of an un-classy city compared to Tokyo.

My office was not that big but it contained some of the most important items. First was a bed of some sort that stood in the back of the room. A couple anatomy posters hung at the wall while the model of a skeleton stood in a corner. A white computer as well as a small printer stood at my desk. There was also a small photo collage there with four photographs. One of them was of me and my boyfriend while another was of my two children. A third one was of me with my parents on my university graduation. Last but not least was a photo of me on my high school graduation.

A small wave of nostalgia hit me as I looked at the photo I had placed on my desk. It had been taken on my high school graduation day. I stood at the far right of the picture right next to Usagi, Makoto, Minako as well as Rei. All of the memories connected to that photo were still fresh even though it was almost twenty years old.

* * *

Rini went back home a couple months after we had defeated Galaxia; she had now finished her training as a sailor soldier. There had been few to no missions for the sailor soldiers after Galaxia had been defeated as well. Most of us found that to be a good thing since we only had two years left to prepare ourselves for university. I could relax a bit more now and my nerves were not as high as earlier. My mother signed me up for university preparation classes twice a week but I also joined a couple clubs at my school. Those clubs were the swimming club as well as the book club. A smile formed at my face as I remembered the time I spent discussing books such as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" or swum laps in the pool with the other girls. Not to mention all the time I spent with the other girls. We had slumber parties (which were not interrupted by some creep who stole star seeds), went clubbing, sung karaoke plus many more things that teenagers did.

When I was about to graduate in 1997, I applied for a total of five top-notch schools that offered medicine degrees. That period of my life was really tough since the entrance exams were extremely hard. At the top of that, I still had to take care of myself. My mother was worried that I did not get enough food that period since I lost nearly three kilograms (AN: About 6 – 6,5 Ibs.) due to stress. But on the positive side, I got into nearly all the schools I had applied for. I did not get into Tokyo University however since they were limiting the number of students that year. But one university that had really caught my eye was Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The reason for that was their slogan: "Cultivating professionals with knowledge and humanity". All of my adventures as a sailor soldier had taught me that a heart of gold was just as valuable as a sharp mind. My mother was ecstatic when I told her that I had decided to accept the offer from that university. I called my father the next day to tell him about the news (he was in Paris at that moment) and he was over the moon. To make everything better, I received a scholarship that paid my first two years at university. All of the girls had a graduation party shortly after that since everyone had gotten into university or college. Minako had been accepted at Soka university, Usagi was attending Toita Women's college, Makoto would start at Le Cordon Bleu while Rei's academic career would continue at Bunkyo Gakuin university.

* * *

It became clear to me that medical school was quite competitive. We had two years of normal schooling first where we had subjects such as English or humanities. Those years were a bit hard for me since humanities were never my strongest subject. Even though my grades were not that bad, I was delighted when we started with more medical-oriented subjects during my third year onwards. We had biology, anatomy plus many more courses. Those years were probably my best during my whole education since I could now do subjects that I truly had an interest in. Not to mention that I met my current husband Kenichi Shimizu during my fourth year. We were both partners during a class where we had to dissect a lung. He was a bit of the quiet just like I was. Unlike me, Kenichi was taking a major in biomedical laboratory sciences. The reason for this was because he had an intense passion for biology as well as making stuff in the lab. Kenichi was not as cocky like some of the guys in my class but he seemed to have an inner strength of some sort (maybe he had a nice star seed?). He took me to a book bar in Tokyo on our first date for instance since we were both bookworms. We both agreed that school would have a bigger role than dating...at least most of the time. I remember that we tried to go on at least two single dates (they were often in the library or a cheap cafeteria nearby) or two group dates a month.

But once I had completed my fourth year, the people in my year started to receive letters from various hospitals that wanted us to apply for a job there. I felt a bit lost since I got five offers in total that all sounded exciting. A part of me wanted to move out of Tokyo however for some variation. The Japanese capital was not bad by any means, but I had lived here for more than twenty years now. I did not have much time to think about it since the qualification exam was two years away. After some research, I was tied between two hospitals. My candidates were Osaka Central hospital in Osaka and Yokohama City University hospital in Yokohama. I went to both of the hospitals after I had finished my fifth year to see how it was.

Both of them gave me a warm welcome upon the arrival. Some of the major factors I had to consider would be where I would work as well as the shifts. My mother had warned me that many doctors had little variation in their work plus taking others shifts in small hospitals or clinics. So applying at a large hospital would not be a bad idea since you would have plenty of colleagues as well as variation in your work load. After some assessment, I decided to apply for a job as a doctor at the Osaka Central hospital. Those in my year would then start on our practice period at the university hospital. We got a number of cases on our hands; it was everything from people who had been in car crashes to tourists with sunburn. But that period was extremely interesting since I got to see so many different cases.

The best part however was the feeling I had after I had helped someone. A ten-year old girl who have had surgery actually made me a drawing since I were one of the people responsible for the post-operation care. My sixth year then approached and so did the certification exam. When I was told that I had passed the exam, I was overwhelmed with a number of emotions. Most of them were positive since this meant that I could now call myself a doctor. This was something I had wanted to be for most of my life. But it also meant that I would now take on one of the most responsible-filled professions there was. Osaka Central hospital was happy for me as well and helped me to find an apartment. Since I had been dating Kenichi for only two years, we thought it was a little early to move in with each other.

My one-room apartment was a single one-room apartment at the third floor. The apartment complex was near the hospital and had been made about five years earlier. It was relatively modest with a small corridor, a small bathroom with an ofuro (AN: Japanese bathtub where you have to squat) plus a Japanese style shower, an average-sized bedroom with a Western-style bed, a nicely sized kitchen that was joined with the living room. I was happy for the ofuro since I still enjoyed bathing. Since the rent was not that high (it only had the most basic furniture in it), I decided to save up some money so I could move in with Kenichi a little later. We had both agreed to move in with each other if our relationship remained stable for at least five years. Neither of us wanted to rush into anything since both of us were 'divorcee children'. My boyfriend's parents had divorced when he was in kindergarten, but they were on relatively good terms since they had their own lives now.

* * *

But this changed three years later when I suddenly started to feel really dizzy at times. Being the worried person I was (I knew a number of illnesses that could cause dizziness after all), I got an appointment at Kosei Nenkin hospital. My test results arrived in my mailbox four days later since I had a former study buddy who now worked at the lab. When it read that I was four weeks pregnant, a shock wave went through my body. I HAD talked with Kenichi about having a baby since I had wanted one for a while. Not to mention that it was only a little more than three years left until I turned thirty. My boyfriend was just as shocked as I was, so we decided to discuss the opportunities. We both had well-paid jobs that were stable plus that we both wanted the baby to grow up with both parents present. But this meant that we had to find a larger apartment or a small house to live in.

I felt a bit uncomfortable about telling my boss about my pregnancy; I had only been a doctor for three years or so. My boss was fortunately not that angry since I told him this in the start of my pregnancy. He told me that he would start to look for a substitute right away so I could have a guilt-free maternity leave. I was not the only one who was pregnant however…it was almost like a sailor scout baby boom. We decided to have a sailor baby bash on the 5th of May since that was children's day. At that date, Usagi was a month pregnant, Minako and I were three months on the way, Rei was six months pregnant while Makoto only had about a month left. Both Rei and Makoto were a bit stressed out since they were in executive positions at their job. Minako as well as Usagi were calmer about this since they both had wanted babies for a while. It was not a surprise in Usagi's case since she had partially raised Rini for two years.

I then went to visit Makoto during the summer holidays when she had given birth to her daughter Masami. She was a beautiful baby girl with the same smile as her mother, but her body built was a bit slight. It did however made a bit of sense since the baby father was a whopping 178 cm (AN: 5'10". Average height for a Japanese man is about 5'7") tall rake thin man. According to my friend, he had a high metabolism. Makoto said that the birth had not been complicated or long thanks to the doctors and nurses. I could not help but to laugh when the former sailor scout suggested that the baby wanted to get out because it was probably sick of all the eggs she had eaten for breakfast. Both of us then went back to Tokyo to visit Rei three weeks after she had given birth to her child. It was a baby girl as well, which was a bit of a surprise. The former fiery soldier joked that we would probably give birth to a new generation of sailor soldiers. Her baby girl had been named Eiko; she had the same energetic eyes as her mother had. The new mother had given birth two weeks earlier than the presumed date (she blamed her boyfriend since he had been borne almost a month early). Plus that the birth had taken a total of ten hours. I felt a little nervous, but I was happy to see that my friend was doing fine. Everyone who was a friend of Rei knew that she was not the type of person who would give up easily.

Things then took a turn for the worse when I fainted at work due to severe lack of iron when I was six months pregnant. It was a good thing that I passed out near the staff room where a couple of the E.R. nurses were having their lunch. They gave me an iron injection before they told me to take it easy for a couple of days. Which was a bit easier said than done since I still had not found a larger place to live. I called Kenichi later that day to hear how the house hunting status was (I had not asked him for a week since we were both busier than normal). He was tied between a small house in the outskirts of the city or an apartment near a large park. I told him that we could take a look at both in two days. The house was rather charming three bedroom house that had been made for just fifteen years ago. It had a nicely sized kitchen, living room plus a small room that could serve as an office or guest bedroom. There was a small lawn outside plus that the neighborhood was quite safe. The apartment however was at the fifth floor with an elevator that was under repair. We decided to go for the house since most of the people in the apartment complex were seniors or single people. We moved into the house just a week before I went into labor. It happened during the morning when Kenichi had gone to work, so I had to call the ambulance myself while I tried to stay calm. The ambulance was fortunately quite fast since it was only 9 AM and I got into the hospital quite fast.

* * *

It took about eight hours until I got to hold my baby. My eyes closed as I replayed the memory in my brain. "Congratulations Mizuno-san. It's a healthy baby girl" echoed the quiet voice of the nurse. Kenichi was over the moon when he found out and we called our parents two days later. We decided to call the baby Aimi since that had been my maternal grandmother's name. Aimi was a relatively calm baby but she hated the cold. This was a bit unfortunate since she had been borne in the middle of November. I went back into work nine months later, but I was only working half-time until I had stopped breast feeding Aimi. I found the breast feeding a bit uncomfortable in the start since my breasts were quite sore; it improved after three weeks fortunately. Aimi cried quite a lot for the first two months and I decided to take her to a pediatrician. It turned out that she got gas in her stomach quite easy, so he told me to drink a special herbal tea plus giving Aimi some gripe water. Everything worked out quite well despite some small relapses. Thank God that Kenichi had been allowed to stay home for the first month or else things would have been worse. My parents adored her; she was their first grandchild after all. I visited my mother in Tokyo during the holidays while my father met me in Naha when he was there on business. He had now started working in a museum there to get a more stable income, which I appreciated. Plus that I enjoyed having a break on the tropical Okinawan islands too…maybe it was something to do with my affiliation with the water as a former sailor scout?

My workload was then increased to 50% while Kenichi worked 75% to cover the bills. When nearly another year had passed, I started thinking if I should have another baby. I knew how lonely it was to grow up as an only child and had always envied Usagi a bit for having a brother. Kenichi supported my suggestion due to the fact that he had an older half-brother himself. He did consider him as a brother however because they had lived in the same house for so long.

Our income was able to handle another baby as well, so we decided to give it another go. It took about three months until I had the dizziness spells again. The tests came out positive, which meant that I would have a new baby due in the end of June. Since things were not going so well at the hospital, I was only allowed eight months off this time. A part of me secretly hoped my baby would be borne at June 30th so it would share birthday with Usagi. I got my wish granted when my baby son decided to enter the world during the evening at June 29th. Since I was home when the contractions took place, Kenichi managed to drive me to hospital right away. The nurses handed me the baby nine hours later and told me that I was now the mother of a healthy son. We decided to name our baby Shuji after Kenichi's father. Aimi was quite happy about receiving a younger brother to care for, especially since he did not have the stomach troubles that she have had.

I got back to work nine months later and started working 50% right away. Kenichi and I had to co-ordinate our shifts a bit more careful because Aimi was in kindergarten now. Time went by quite quickly; Shuji started at the kindergarten just six months before Aimi started at school. I felt a little sad when I followed her to school, but she had been looking forward to it. She already knew the basic katakana plus that she could count to 50. A part of me was happy that my little girl had not inherited all of my 'genius genes' as Kenichi called them. I did not want her to get bullied or left out like I was at her age.

Since Aimi was in school now, I increased my workload to 75% so I could be able to pay my share of the bills. Kenichi was grateful but told me to take a day or two off every week so I could spend some time with the children. I tried to follow up his advice, but I have to admit that I failed a number of times due to the importance of my job. Not to mention that I loved my job…I had worked at least half of my life to get there. But my children are fortunately good at telling me when they missing me. Especially little Shuji since I spend less time at home than what I did when Aimi was little.

* * *

My cell phone suddenly started to vibrate in my messenger bag. I picked it up; it was a text message from Aimi. 'Me, Shuji-kun and daddy are going to pick you up at work. We have a surprise for you ' said the SMS. I smiled; what kind of surprise could it be? "Have a good evening Mizuno-senpai" greeted the nurse who sat behind the reception desk. "Have a good evening too Hokushima-san" I replied with a polite voice. My eyes looked for our family's dark gray Suzuki car. "MOMMY!" yelled a pair of familiar voices from the left. I spun around and saw my children standing on the pavement with huge smiles plastered on their faces. "Shuji-kun! Aimi-chan!" I exclaimed before I gave them a hug.

"Let's sing now" stated my son. "One-two three!" counted my daughter. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear mommy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" sung both of my children. "What-is it really my birthday!?" I stuttered as I looked down at my cell phone. Turned out that my children were right; it was September 10th. "Happy birthday sweetie" said Kenichi as he appeared from behind the children with a smile. "We're going to celebrate your birthday at home. I've made your favorite sandwiches plus that Makoto-san was nice enough to send a free cake to our house" told my husband as we walked back together to the car. "Thank you Kenichi" I answered, my cheeks pink. "Aaaw! It's raining!" whined Aimi. "Let's get into the car then" I urged as Kenichi unlocked the doors. I was quite happy with how my life had turned out. Yes, it could be stressful at times to be a doctor as well as the mother of two. But I had I job I loved plus a family I loved more. The power of Mercury's knowledge had given me the knowledge to choose correctly all along…which I could not have lived without.


	2. Chapter 2: Minako Aino

Up next will be Sailor Venus? What is she doing nowadays?

Things to look out for:

Kae Hanazawa: The artist who sung the opening to Sailor Stars.

Hitomi: A famous J-pop artist who made her debut in the 90's.

Globe: J-pop band that had an album that sold 4,13 million copies in 1996.

Summer Sonic festival: Music festival that finds place in Tokyo.

TV Japan, Fuji TV, NHK and Japan News Network: Television stations in Tokyo.

According to Wikipedia plus things that my Asian classmates told me, there can be one or more entrance exams. I decided that Minako should take three exams in total since she is aiming for a degree in a somewhat unusual field.

* * *

**Chapter two: The sailor of love and beauty.**

"Thank you for visiting us today Kae Hanazawa! We will be right back after the commercial break" I announced with a bright smile on my face. "And…we're switching to commercials. Good job Minako-chan" called the audio engineer who sat at the other side of the room. "It was a pleasure to have you here today Kae-san. I hope we can meet again soon" I said as I looked at her. "You're welcome Aino-san. Oh…didn't you wanted me to sign your daughter's autograph book?" inquired the woman. "Ah! I nearly forgot! Just give me a second please" I laughed as I went over to my bag. I picked up my daughters autograph book as well as a pen. Kae signed an empty page in the book before she left the studio.

"You got some mail Minako-chan…you better have a look at some of these envelopes here. They look quite important" informed the male. "I will" I muttered while I walked towards the door that lead into the studio. My hands tried to balance my fake (but admittedly good-looking) Burberry bag while I took the envelopes. One of them was a bill that had to be paid while the other two were letters from Osaka as well as Kyoto. A smile formed at my face. Makoto and Ami had probably sent a birthday card for my daughter who had her birthday in a couple days.

My fingers got a grip on the keys as I unlocked my office. There was a bit of mess on the desk, but the rest of the place was relatively clean. 'Better get home as soon as I can since I promised to make dinner tonight' I thought as I started to go through the small pile of paper on my desk. My eyes then looked at the graduation photo from high school. I stood right between Makoto and Rei with a grin on my face. The corners of my lips turned upwards as I remembered my high school days.

* * *

Galaxia had been defeated just a week prior to New Years for nearly twenty years ago. Rini had finished her training as a sailor soldier and went back to the future. It then struck me that I had to think a bit more on the future since I had not paid much attention to it. That became one of my New Year resolution; my second was to get a ticket to a live concert by Hitomi.

My parents signed me up for cram school so I could have a better chance to get into university. I took math, English (my parents thought the English classes in Japan were not that good), science plus Japanese. But I was not near enough to get as good grades as Ami for example. My love for volleyball as well as pop music was stronger than my sort of newfound interest for school subjects. I had a membership at the J-pop and volleyball club after all. Like most teenage girls, I had fun with the other sailor soldiers. We went clubbing or visited karaoke bars once after our exams were done. My friend group at the J-pop group had different sort of parties as well. A small laughter escaped my lips when I remembered the pop-style party we had at my house when Globe was having a live concert. Everyone had dressed up as members from different pop groups, but one of the girls had actually dressed up as one of the male members in Globe. She did a really good job though. It did not take long until I had to decide what university I should get into. My mind was a bit in doubt since I did not have a really clear idea like Rei, Ami or Makoto had.

But that was until I received a brochure from Soka University; they offered something that caught my interest in a snare. They had majors such as media, culture, English communication plus so much more. My parents knew that English was important (we HAD lived in England for nearly five years after all) so they gave me the permission to apply there. Their only hitch was that I had to do my best and not slack off. That was a bit hard since I had never been one for exams, but this was a chance to get to do something I loved. My Japanese exam went slightly worse than expected while I got surprisingly well results at my English exam. The general entrance exam was slightly better than average. A somewhat thick letter then arrived in the mail six weeks later. I had been accepted into Soka university! Both of my parents were happy for me since I had worked quite hard to get in there.

The sailor soldiers then had a graduation party one week later when everyone had gotten their results. Usagi had been accepted into Toita Women's college, Makoto would be attending Le Cordon Bleu, Rei was going to enter Bunkyo Gakuin university while Ami had gotten a place at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. All of us would stay in Tokyo during our studies but we would be in different schools.

I decided to take a major in English communication while my minors would be media and culture plus public relations. Most of my classmates wanted to become journalists or television reporters or had parents who were from the US or Australia. It was quite an interesting class in other words since we came from four different countries all together (US, Australia, Japan plus a couple exchange students from Canada).

The university classes were a bit boring at first since they were more complicated than I thought. But things got more interesting as the school year went on. For instance, we visited Fuji television station right before Christmas. A majority of the class (myself included) were quite amazed by what we saw. We got to talk to a couple of the hosts plus some of the executives that worked there.

A renewed interest awaked in me; I now wanted to get a job within television! But that meant that I had to put more interest in my schoolwork…which was less fun. My grades improved a bit plus that it felt good to be prepared for class. I was still training volleyball, but I decided to try to get into the student organizations at my school. The one that caught my interest the most was the media club that made student broadcasts. This was where I met my first serious boyfriend in a good while (I had a bit of troubles with relationships). His name was Sadao Nishimura and was in my year. Sadao's job in the student media club was to help out with the movie editing. I eventually got a job in the student television as an English presenter together with another guy. Other tasks I had were to help writing English manuscripts or translate things. To say that I enjoyed working in the student media club was not an understatement…especially when the technology improved. Organizing things became easier and better access to information gave us more interesting shows.

Me and Sadao usually spent time at music clubs as well as summer concerts. It was a good thing that we lived in Tokyo since we had lots of music festivals or arrangements. One of those was the Summer Sonic festival, which was something we looked forward to every single year.

* * *

But as time went on, I had to decide where I wanted to work. My experience within the student media organization was a huge plus (especially combined with my better-than-average English skills). I had a hard time to decide however since getting a job within television was tough.

The counselor at my school suggested that I should visit some of the television and radio broadcasting offices. Especially since fourth-year students had to finish a year of internship. The school could fix you a place if necessary though. It was a good thing that more immigrants were coming to Japan since they would need people who could speak foreign languages. I decided to visit some of the major broadcasting stations such as NHK plus Fuji television station. Both of them told me that it would be hard for me to get a job there since I would be fresh out of school; they apparently wanted more experienced people. I felt quite sad until I decided to visit TV Japan. They were looking for people who had good oral and written English skills for their new shows. Needless to say, I was extremely happy when I got that opportunity. The company told me to send me three tapes from my student broadcasting shows plus three manuscripts. It was quite hard since I had lots of material to go through. Not to mention that I wanted TV Japan to see or read the best things I had made. After countless hours of searching, I had made up my mind. This was good since my nerve-wracking graduation exams were only a year away.

TV Japan sent me a reply a month later. I had been accepted for an internship after my graduation as long as I did not have anything worse than 60% in English communication at my diploma. When I received the answer, I did an extreme version of the happy dance in pure ecstasy. All that was left was to make sure that my exam results were good. The station then called me in the end of the summer holidays and asked me to meet one of their executives. Later that day, I met my future boss who told me that I would work as a part-time transcriptor. They had seen my work with the student organization and found my scripts to be of quite good quality. I worked at the TV station two days a week while I studied harder than ever before. Even though I was not the smartest kid in school, I knew that good results could give me a job at TV Japan. Sadao was quite busy as well since he was trying to find a job as well. He eventually managed to get a job as an editor assistant at Japan News Network thanks to his experience in the media club.

I went straight to TV Japan after I had graduated and told them that I had met their requirements. I had managed to score 68% in English communication after hours of study. My workload increased but I got the opportunity to work with a team as well. I also moved in with Sadao. We had dated for a little more than three years and we felt ready for this. The decision of moving in turned out to be quite good since my boyfriend was fortunately not that messy. A new job opportunity arrived a year later when they were going to interview an Australian runner who had participated in some all Asian-Pacific sports event in Tokyo. The assistant reporter had gotten a bad case of flu and I was asked to step in his place. I felt quite nervous since this runner's accent was a bit difficult for me to understand. But once he started to speak, I tried to focus on the main meaning of what he said. I then translated as best as I could for the viewers while I did my best attempt to keep my nerves in check.

The boss then asked me to come at her office later that week. My nerves were all tensed…had I really done that bad at the interview? A couple of native English speakers had called the station because they thought my English was surprisingly good. I was too surprised to talk and just managed to sputter out a 'thank you' when I heard that. Two months later, I was told that I had to accompany a somewhat new television crew to cover the Summer Sonic festival. My job was to translate the questions into English plus assisting the reporter. I nearly freaked out since I was still a large fan of both foreign as well as Japanese music. I met the team a week later. It consisted of a camera man that had been in that job for almost 15 years while the female reporter was only five years older than me. The sound editor had only worked at TV Japan for two years but had seven years of experience. Despite the fact that we did not know each other that well, we managed to work together without a lot of fighting. The reporter decided that we should focus on the reception the musicians got in Japan as well as the inspiration for their work. It would give the viewer more insight into the musician's life and their thoughts on performing for a Japanese crowd. My work with the sailor soldiers had showed me that there was more to people than what the eye met, so I agreed.

I remember working extremely hard on the questions since this was my second serious assignment. It could potentially make or break my career. My stomach had giant butterflies when I went to the music festival with the television team. For the first time in my life, I was here with work instead of being a spectator. We interviewed a total of six different English-speaking bands or musicians during the event and the hardest part was yet to come. Which was to TRANSLATE all of the answers into Japanese! I could not have been happier with my experience in transcription since it made it easier for me to translate the answers. The interviews were aired a week later with Japanese subtitles, which turned out to be a success for the entire team. We all got more work with English-related television later on because of that. It also turned out that we all had interests related to music or anime. Needless to say, there was quite many of our off-duty nights that were spent in a karaoke bar. As I got more experience, I started to get more involved with the reporter part of the job. I often stepped in if our team reporter got ill. Sadao eventually got promoted to an editor on his job right before a life-turning event hit us.

* * *

The first clue was that my period was two weeks delayed. It worried me quite a bit since I was very consistent on that part, so I went to see a doctor right away. He took a couple of blood test and told me to eat healthily for the next two weeks. I decided to follow his decision since I had been missing out a bit on meals due to my work schedule. The results returned a week later…it turned out I was pregnant with Sadao's baby. My mind froze since I had not discussed this that much with my boyfriend. But my heart and mind told me that I was ready to have one. After all, I was nearly 27 years old with a steady job. I showed my boyfriend the results the next day when we both started our two week holiday. He was quite shocked to say at the least. After some silence, he told me he would think about it for a couple days. I was so nervous that it was a wonder I could keep my food down. After two days, Sadao then told me that he was ready to have a baby now due to the fact that he felt old enough to handle it. The next thing to do was to tell this to my boss. She fortunately understood the situation due to the fact that she had two kids herself.

But I was not the only who was pregnant; it turned out that a baby boom was going on in the sailor soldier circle. We decided to have a baby bash at Rei's place at the 5th May (or Children's day). Ami as well as I were three months pregnant, Rei had reached her sixth month, Usagi was on her seventh while Makoto only had a month left. But a new situation arrived since the apartment me and Sadao lived in was not big enough for three. We decided to look around to see if there was a family-friendly place we could rent in the Edogawa district. It took a while until we eventually found a small house that had three bedrooms. Good thing that we had been promoted or else we would have a harder time financing it.

The majority of my pregnancy went relatively well; the only bad thing was that I could not exercise volleyball that much anymore. Plus that I had this weird craving for water melon. My daughter announced her arrival in the end of November when I was on my way back from the dentist. I managed to dial the ambulance on my cellphone while I tried to not panic. The ambulance arrived after a short time before I was shuttled to the closest hospital. After nine hours of pushing, my child was now outside of my body. I still remember the moment when the nurses told me that I was now the mother of a baby girl. Sadao arrived the next day (he could not arrive earlier since he was on a production meeting in Hokkaido). We decided to call her Mina since we both thought it fitted her quite well. She was a relatively nice baby but had a hating for vacuum cleaners or anything with loud sounds.

Usagi visited me a couple weeks later, her belly being just as big as mine had been. She was a bit nervous about the birth but I told her it was nothing to worry about. The only problematic thing for my part was that I became a bit exhausted since breastfeeding drained a lot of vitamins. My doctor prescribed me some multi-vitamins plus a new exercise routine. It worked out quite well since Sadao had been allowed to work 60% for three months due to a downtime at his television company. This was a great thing since I needed all the help I could get.

* * *

I went back to a 50% job position ten months later while my boyfriend stepped up to 75%. There were a lot of things going on at the J-pop as well as the J-drama scene in Japan, which was quite exciting. A new surprise came along the road when Sadao's sister Kazumi plus her husband and daughter moved to Tokyo as well. Her daughter Asami was at the same age as Mina, so we often had play dates together. Our daughters started in kindergarten a couple months before they turned three and I knew it would be quite tough to give birth to another child. I decided to talk with Sadao about this because he needed to have his saying in this as well. We decided to not have another child since we had Kazumi and her family living so close to us; Asami was pretty much like another daughter to me.

This was the point where something quite big happened at my work area. The reporter in my team told us that she was going to move to Yokohama since she had been offered a position as a senior reporter there. My colleague then told me that she wanted me to have her job if that was fine. I was quite thrilled because this was a job I would LOVE to have. I accepted her offer and we had a small party at a somewhat nice restaurant in town. Sadao and Mina were ecstatic when they heard about this since it meant that my job would be a bit more regular. It did not take long until I got an assistant as well. Her name was Yukiko and she was exactly ten years younger than me. I felt privileged to be her senior since I had been in that position as well. My job was mainly about interviewing English-speaking people that had all types of professions. I was assigned with people who worked in all kind of industries; fashion, sports, business as well as music. But I also had to cover other types of interviews if people got sick for instance...which could be a bit boring if it was on a last minute notice.

* * *

"I'M HOME!" I announced as I entered the house. The light inside the living room was dimmed…I wondered why. My curiosity got me and I walked into the living room. I could not help but to gape when I saw that there was a pot with my favorite curry on the dinner table. A candle stood in the middle on it while a bottle of clear sake stood in a bucket filled with ice next to one of the chairs.

Sadao then appeared. "Minako…I want to ask you something" announced my boyfriend. "Yes, what is it?" I replied with a somewhat shaky voice. He then took a couple steps towards me before he went down at one knee. 'NO…THAT CAN'T BE…' I thought while he pulled out a small box. "Minako Aino, you have made me the happiest man alive. You have given me a daughter and a wonderful life. Would you do the honor of marrying me?" he said as he looked up at me. To say that he looked nervous would be the understatement of the year. "YES!" I yelled before I threw my arms around him. I really did not see a reason why we should not marry. We had been a couple for nearly twelve years, we had lived together for about seven of them plus that we had a girl who had just started at school. "Thank you so much Minako" whispered my boyfriend as he put the ring on my finger. It was a small but quite beautiful topaz. Looks like the planet of Venus had granted me a life with lots of love…a job I loved plus a family I loved even more. And as we all know, love makes the world go around.

* * *

I thought that an ending like this would suit Minako quite well since she is the 'Soldier of Love' after all. Not sure if it was mentioned how long Minako had stayed in England, so I just made something up. I would imagine she had been there a number of years since she speaks quite good English.


	3. Chapter 3: Usagi Tsukino

I'm sure you've seen it coming, but Sailor Moon is our next person up! What is happening in her life?

Yes, I'm FULLY aware that Rini is named Chibiusa. But I thought it was a little stupid since the mother is named Usagi. So in this story, Chibiusa will be called Rini.

Another note about Mamoru's age; he was three-four years older than Usagi in the manga. So I decided to keep him four years older just for reference.

Things to look out for:

Tsukiyaki: Japanese dish with beef slices, tofu plus vegetables that have simmered in soy sauce based soup.

Kumo: Japanese word for cloud.

National foundation day: Finds place at 11th February. The first emperor in Japanese history was crowned that day.

Nerima: A ward in Tokyo.

* * *

**Chapter three: The sailor of love and justice.**

"Whoa…it's kinda cold today" I muttered as I stepped out of the car. I went straight to the back seat to get the groceries. Today was the twentieth anniversary of me and Mamoru's relationship. Next thing to do was to bake a chocolate cake for dessert since I had already made a delicious tsukiyaki for dinner. Rini as well as Kousagi were at my parent's house for the evening so I could spend the evening with my boyfriend. Or perhaps I should say husband…I almost forget that we have been married for nearly two years now. "Whoa! Close call" I muttered when I nearly dropped one of the shopping bags to the ground. I somehow managed to sneak back into the small house before I went upstairs to the kitchen. 'Maybe I should check my email' thought I while the oven was getting heated up.

My fingers darted across the smartphone that I had gotten for my birthday. 'Hm…new facebook photo at Hotaru's wall' I thought as I raised my eyebrows. All of the sailor soldiers had facebook walls, but our youngest one rarely updated. The photo featured the young nurse standing next to her father with a huge smile. She was wearing a deep purple spaghetti-strapped dress that reached her knees. A simple necklace with a green stone was around her neck while her hair was pulled up in a somewhat traditional Japanese hairstyle. 'Celebrating my daddy's 50th birthday today with my family!' said the text underneath. I typed a short reply with a smiley before I opened up the recipe book for the chocolate cake. My cooking skills had improved a bit over the years, much thanks to a cooking class that I took prior to Rini's birth. A mother had to be able to cook some decent meals for her children after all.

My eyes then darted towards the photo of me and Mamoru at the opposite side of the kitchen. I was wearing a white dress that was similar to the one I used to wear as the Moon princess. Rini was dressed in a similar outfit but had paler pink accents than I had. For some reason, my eyes then looked at the graduation photo from high school. I stood right between Makoto and Ami with a silly smile on my face. A feeling of nostalgia entered my body as I remembered my high school days.

* * *

Galaxia had been defeated for good close to New Year's Eve nearly twenty years ago. Rini had finished her training as a sailor soldier and went back to the future. I felt quite sad to see her go, but I knew that I would probably see her again soon. This gave me a somewhat new focus…I had to become a good mother for her in the future. Her mother would be me after all. Mamoru was in the United States at this point to finish his bachelor degree in international studies with minors in physics and English. I missed him quite a bit but I knew he would be home in two years.

Both of my parents signed me up for cram school; I was a little whiny about that in the start. Especially since they had signed me up for English, science as well as math lessons twice a week. I was not alone however…Minako had been signed up for cram school too. But she went to a school that was a couple blocks away from mine. I then decided to give cooking classes a go so I could become a better cook. Plus that I already had a good friend in there (Makoto) that could give me a hand if needed.

It turned out to be a good idea since my parents cut me some slack during the weekends. This meant a little me-time where I could goof around a bit with the other soldiers. Some of the things we did were to go clubbing, sing karaoke, host slumber parties plus a bunch of other 'teenage' stuff. Mamoru then got back home to Tokyo at the start of my senior year and the soldiers had a welcome home party for him at his 21st birthday. He would have one more year until he could start his two year internship at an international company that sold Japanese electronic brands like Sony. I was so happy that he got that internship; the time in the United States had really paid off.

The cooking club usually had a 'best cook face-off' right after the mid-terms. When I remembered some of the cakes I made, I almost started laughing. One of the cakes I made was a chocolate cake of some sort that looked like a pile of brownie dough mixed with white chocolate that had been taken from the trash. Makoto's cherry pie however appeared to be something pulled right out of a cooking magazine or a top-notch restaurant. Then the entrance exams for university appeared. My grades were not that good but they had improved noticeably since I had started at high school.

My mind was a bit in doubt since I did not have a really clear idea like Rei, Ami or Makoto had. But I eventually decided that I should take a degree or diploma course that involved childcare. I decided to apply for Toita's womens college for a degree that focused on training in care for nurses plus care-givers. The entrance exams were a bit harder than I imagined, but they were nowhere near as hard as Ami-chans for instance. My Japanese exam went quite well while my social studies one went all right. The general entrance exam however was not as good as I had wanted. But the hard work paid off when I got a nice thick envelope that told me that I had gotten into the school I had wanted to enter. My parents were quite happy with me since they knew that a long academic career was not for me.

* * *

The sailor soldiers then had a graduation party one week later when everyone had gotten their results. Minako had been accepted into Soka university, Ami had managed to get a spot at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Makoto was now a student at Le Cordon Bleu while Rei would continue her career at Bunkyo Gakuin university. All of us would stay in Tokyo during our studies but we would be in different schools.

It was a little odd for me to attend a women's college; I had been in a mixed school all my life after all. The college was under renovation when I arrived but we were promised better facilities next school year. The first month was mainly introduction classes to our courses. Since I had aimed for a diploma, all of these classes were obligatory. It made me feel a little down because I thought that university would have a bit more freedom in terms of attendance. Even though I was 19, I was still a bit of a slacker at heart.

But I tried to tell myself that I was here for two reasons. Reason one (which was the most important one) was that I had to become the best mother as possible. For some strange reason, I knew that I would have a daughter or possibly two children in the future. The second was to secure my job options a bit since a diploma would be better than no degree. Someone who knew how to care for children would probably get a job quite easy because of all the kindergartens and schools in Tokyo. I did not focus that much on the pay as long as I could help Mamoru a bit.

We…ahem…took it to the next level on my 20th birthday since I was an official adult by now. Plus that Mamoru had now graduated and could start at his internship. A part of me thought it was a good thing that I was in an all-female college due to the fact that I was already in a relationship. Makoto then introduced me to her new boyfriend at her 20th birthday; they had apparently been dating for nine months now. This was a new record for her (no offense intended) considering that she had not dated that much the last three years. But I was happy for her by any means since he turned out to be a really nice guy.

* * *

Mamoru then came with a serious question after we had taken our relationship to the next level. He asked me if I wanted to move in with him. We were basically an adult couple now plus that we had been in a steady relationship for six years. And we did not have Galaxia, the Moon circus or any evil people that disturbed us or Tokyo anymore. I asked him to give me a couple days to think about this; moving in with someone was quite serious. After some thinking, I moved to Mamoru's apartment right before my second year was about to start. Both of my parents were fine with that due to the fact that we had dated for so long. His internship did not make things worse either since his income was a bit bigger by now.

My second year was mostly about first-aid, basic medicine plus other things you needed to know in order to care for children. I found the psychology subject quite interesting for some weird reason. Maybe it was because a lot of it made sense for me since I had experienced some of these things and could now see the dynamics. Unlike Ami, I'm one of those people who learn by doing things instead of reading. We were then told that we would have an internship at a kindergarten or pre-school after graduation. This year-long internship would find place when we had passed our exams in the second year. But the downside was that there was a three-student limit per kindergarten or preschool. I had a somewhat tough time to decide what sort of kindergarten or pre-school I should apply for; there were so many of them!

My choice then felt on Tokyo Kumo Preschool that was about ten blocks away from where I lived. There was only one other person in my class that had applied, so I was quite sure that I would get it. My teacher then called me a couple weeks later and told me that I had gotten the internship at the kindergarten I wanted. I was ecstatic, but I still had to think about my graduation exams. Mamoru encouraged me as much as he could and I also had some study sessions with Rei since we both had psychology. Hers was more aimed at groups of adults rather than children though. A part of me was relieved that I would have an oral exam; written ones were not my strongest side. I could not tell how nervous I felt when I lined up outside the teacher's office where I would have my exam. Luckily, I got a subject I was sort of comfortable talking about.

My results on the small lecture about basic practical childcare then arrived a couple hours later when my classmates had finished. I was quite surprised since I had done better than expected; I had gotten a B/C! My class celebrated at a restaurant later that night while my family gave me a new kimono plus a pair of ear rings as a graduation gift. It was not an understatement to say that Mamoru was happy as well. He had just finished his internship and had now gotten an offer from the company. They had offered him a job within the coordination sector due to his cooperation as well as English skills. We went to Seoul that summer for some cultural inspiration; I had not been that much out of Japan. The only countries I had visited were China, Vietnam plus Australia with my family. This was however the first time I went on a trip out of the country with my boyfriend.

* * *

But things got more serious after the summer holidays were over. First thing was my job as an intern at Tokyo Kumo Preschool. A majority of the kids there were between 0 and 5 years old. My job varied from changing diapers (which I HATED), cook food for the children, help them getting dressed or even just play with them. I liked the last thing the most since I found it kind of fun. Another thing I had to do was to accompany them on trips to the swimming hall or the museum for instance. But there was one thing I had to find…a job after my internship was finished! I started to apply once New Year's was over since there was no point in applying too long in advanced.

One of my colleagues then came with a suggestion when February arrived. A friend of hers who worked as an English teacher had told me that one of her student's mothers was going to quit her job. She apparently wanted to apply for some post-graduate or qualification classes. Here is the clue thing; this mother had used to work at Nerima's big kindergarten as a kindergarten teacher. I decided to send in an application right away since I still have not checked out that part of the city yet. Which was a shame; it was only ten minutes away with the metro after all. I sent in a couple more applications in that area just to be sure. Someone from Nerima's big kindergarten then called me half a month later and requested an interview. I was over the moon (pun intended) but I had to remain professional. My employer turned out to be a middle-aged woman that reminded me a little of the sewing teacher I had in junior high school. The interview was relatively painless and she asked me to call her when my intern period ended in May.

The next month was busy since my internship came to an end. A smile formed at my lips when I remember the small party the staff had made for me and the other internship student that had been with me. I got my internship period approved (turned out that being serious was not stupid) but I still had to decide where to go. My gut told me to call Nerima's big kindergarten and…I WAS OFFERED A JOB! Mamoru and my family were ecstatic while I was elated. The first day there was just as exciting as my first day in preschool; how would it be like? Most of the staff members were quite young with the oldest being 40. The said person was my boss. I enjoyed working there and I got promoted to one of the more senior teacher when I turned 26. But my life then took a dramatic (but not completely unexpected) turn a couple months later.

* * *

The first sign was that I started to have a weird craving for oranges. This was odd since I was not the biggest fan of that fruit. I brushed it off since my annual doctor checkup was right around the corner. The doctor told me I was six weeks pregnant and asked me if I wanted to keep the child. I said that I had to talk it over with my boyfriend first. Mamoru was elated despite that we had both expected it. My baby was due in the end of June (what a surprise) and the other sailor soldiers decided to have a baby bash at May 5th. Rei was six months pregnant; Makoto had only a couple weeks left while Ami and Minako were three months along. I tried to be as careful as possible during my pregnancy and tried to eat all the right things. My doctor encouraged me to do some exercise too, which I decided to give a go to. Mamoru and I then decided to renovate our apartment a little bit. His family had originally bought this as a family apartment, so there were three bedrooms there.

My pregnancy then took a turn for the worse in the end of May when I was walking back home from the supermarket. Due to the heat, I fainted on the sidewalk before waking up at a nearby hospital. Three school girls from a local high school had found me and called the emergency as fast as they could. Mamoru came an hour later with a very worried look at his face. I could not blame him due to the fact that I was nearly eight months pregnant with his child. The doctor prescribed me some rest plus an advice to stay out of the sun during the hottest periods of the day. My labor worries then arrived a couple weeks later. Would I get to the hospital in time!? Would I be in a lot of pain!? It STINKED to be one of the first in a friend group to give birth to a child! My worries turned out to be unreasoned since my contractions started during the evening. I was home watching news with Mamoru, so he was able to get me to the hospital quite quickly. Eight to nine hours later in the dead of night, my baby Rini had started on her life in our world. My eyes were welled up with tears…my baby was finally here! I had to act surprised when the nurse told me it was a girl, which probably was not the best act from my side.

* * *

The first couple of months went so-so. Rini had a habit of waking up at 4 AM while screaming at the top of her lungs sometimes. This did not bother me much the first months since we were both home, but it started to annoy my boyfriend a bit a month later. We took her to the hospital and asked them to give us some advice. I signed up for a baby-care course to get some much needed advice. Mamoru was back at work now but only worked three days a week. Rini then managed to turn her sleep habits in a more proper direction; she now woke up at 7 AM instead. Which was MUCH more feasible than 4 AM if you ask me. I then got back to work a little more than a year later since the kindergarten was closed from the end of June to the start of August. My job week was not that long (I worked two-three days a week depending on my boyfriend's shifts).

It did not take long until we started to talk about having another child. Neither of us wanted Rini to grow up as an only child, but we had to get our economy a bit more stable first. Good thing that my job at the kindergarten meant I got some discount or else we would have to wait for longer. Our daughter entered the kindergarten just a couple months prior to her third birthday, which was an odd feeling. We had picked the best kindergarten close to our house (it was only five blocks away) and I had checked their reputation properly. I mean…I did NOT want my daughter to enter a bad kindergarten since I was a kindergarten teacher myself. It would be quite odd huh? Rini luckily found the kindergarten to be a blast while I and my boyfriend stepped up our workload. We tried to get at least two weekends a month off work since we wanted to spend more time with her. In August that year, I got pregnant again. My daughter was over the moon about having a new sibling while Mamoru was a little worried. This meant that he had to work more overtime, but I told him it was fine. The only thing I demanded was that he had to work a bit less during the last month of my pregnancy. I did not want to give birth in the traffic jam leaving Tokyo at 4 PM after all.

This pregnancy was a bit harder than the last. I had to constantly monitor my vitamin intake since my body handled this pregnancy a bit harder than the previous one. I was 31 after all, which meant higher risks for certain things the child could be borne with. My mind prayed that the child would not be born with any deadly diseases like cancer or something…that would be horrible. I did not faint this time and my contractions ironically started when I visited my mother. She got me to hospital while my dad contacted my boyfriend. It took me only seven hours this time, but my baby had to be taken to another department. The navel cord had been wrapped around my child's throat and had hindered the breathing a bit. I could not sleep that night…what would happen next!? Mamoru tried to re-assure me since the doctor had not said it was deadly. I was crying with relief when the doctor came in ten hours later and told me that the baby was breathing well now. The baby was a girl, so we decided to call her Kousagi. Rini was happy about having a baby sister since she had someone to play with now.

I returned to work a year later while Mamoru had to start working full time after just two months. It upset me a little since I now had two children to care for. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise; he was given a promotion just before Kousagi's first birthday. He would have to work one or two hours extra per day however. I was fine with that; we would now be able to pay the girl's education in the future. My boyfriend then popped the question, which I gave a resounding YES to in reply. We married about a year later with all of our family and friends. It was a simple wedding (we could not afford something huge) but it was still the best day of my life.

Rini then enrolled into school two years later. It was a nerve-wracking day for both of us…how would she like it!? And how would the classmates think of her? Not to mention what her experience was. Rini turned out to be happy with school. She was not as miserable as I was but did not enjoy it as much as Mamoru did. Kousagi was then sent to kindergarten just four weeks shy of her third birthday and she is enjoying it to the fullest. The only bad thing is that she refuses to eat the rice porridge they make sometimes. I got a pay raise at the kindergarten and I'm working five to six days a week. But I must say that the happiest times are the ones I spend with my family at the local swimming hall or in the park. Spending quality time with your child is something I know is VITAL. I did partially raised Rini twenty years back after all.

* * *

"I'M HOME!" yelled a familiar voice. "Crap!" I muttered as I removed the cake from the oven. Steps could be heard as Mamoru stepped into the hallway. 'Better find the icing!' I thought as I looked around. Good thing I had prepared this on beforehand or else I would be in trouble. My hands squeezed out some pink frosting while I tried to remain calm. "I'm smelling something good" muttered my husband as he stepped into the kitchen. My hands fumbled a little with the plates as I popped them into the microwave. "HAPPY TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY!" I yelled as Mamoru entered the kitchen. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You…is it really twenty years!? Are you SURE you are remembering correctly!?" asked my husband. "Yup! Today is 1st of December! The day where we had our first official date!" I stated. His eyes then flitted towards the calendar.

"Oh. Where is Rini-chan and Kousagi-chan?" inquired Mamoru. "They're on a mini-visit at my parent's house. They will stay there until 10 PM" I proudly informed. A smile formed at his face. "Thank you Usagi-chan" he muttered before we kissed each other. A warm feeling spread around in my body…this felt like heaven. "Did you made tsukiyaki and chocolate cake?" sputtered my husband. "I did. Enjoy!" I exclaimed before we sat down. Not a lot of people can say that they know who they're going to marry or how their child will look like before they're borne. But I can. And that is one of the biggest joys I have been given. Looks like being the princess of the moon has it big perks when it comes to ones lovelife.

* * *

I hope the waiting time was worth it. Please read and review!


	4. Chapter 4: Rei Hino

I'm SO sorry for not having updated in so long! I've had extended internship, exams, my birthday AND holidays coming right after each other! I'll hopefully post the next chapter in the first half of January next year.

Things to look out for:

New Year's Eve: This is a special holiday in Japan. People send cards to each other, which is the equivalent of sending Christmas cards here in the west. New Year's cards often have greetings such as "I hope for your favour again in the coming year" or "Happiness to you on the dawn of a new year". It is also a custom to give money to children on New Year's Day.

Golden Week: A collection of four holidays within a week. Golden week takes place in late April to early May (the last holiday is on May 5th).

Aka Manto: Known as red cloak, red vest or red mantle. An evil Japanese ghosts that usually haunts the last stall of the girl's bathroom. He usually asks "Do you want a red or blue cloak?". If you answer red, he will cut your head off or slice up your back to make it look like you wear a red cloak. If you go for blue, he will grab you by the neck so you die by choking.

Miko: An assisting priestess or shrine maiden at Shinto temples. Most of these are teenagers or girls in their young twenties since only virgins can be miko's.

Miso: Traditional Japanese seasoning made out of fermented soy beans. Often used in soup or traditional dishes.

Then we have Sailor Mars! What is her life like now after she has finished her duties as a sailor soldier?

* * *

**Chapter four: The sailor of fire and passion.**

"Finally" I sighed as I locked the room. I had just finished my last calligraphy lesson this year. I could now start on my official holiday until the school started back up again in January. 'Better get home so I can get dinner ready' I thought as I glanced down at my watch.

The elementary school I teach at is located in a somewhat busy area with shopping streets nearby. The winter this year had been a bit colder than usual, which bothered me a little bit. I was after all the soldier of fire back in the days. Warm lights radiated from the shop windows where there were posters informing about the New Year's sales. It then hit me that I should probably start preparing for New Year's Eve since it was only five days left. 'Better make sure to check my supplies when I get back home' I thought to myself as I turned a corner. I felt a little chillier now since a small breeze had started to blow. My teeth clattered a little before I decided to speed up a little. It was not a bad decision; I reached my small house just four minutes later. My hand turned the doorknob and opened the door. All that I saw was darkness…I was the first one to get home.

I turned on the light before shutting the door. A small wave of happiness went through my body as I entered the kitchen; it was warm here. I decided to go through the mail that lay at the table. 'Looks like Takeo-chan picked it up before he went to his karate lesson' I mused as I picked up the envelopes. There were a couple of adverts there plus two letters. One was addressed to my husband while the other was for me. 'Wonder who that can be from' I thought as I opened up the envelope. My eyes widened when I saw what it was. It was a New Year's card from Makoto and her family. 'Happiness to your family on the dawn of a New Year! Best greetings from Makoto, Tatsuo, Masami and Toru Kino' read the card. On the card was a photo of the small family. A smile formed at my mouth when I remembered my years as a Sailor soldier.

* * *

Rini went back home a couple months after we had defeated Galaxia; she had now finished her training as a sailor soldier. There had been few to no missions for the sailor soldiers after Galaxia had been defeated as well. Which was good since university was not far away. Unlike the others, I was enrolled in a private school with a combined junior and senior high school. My class elected me as their student council representative in my second year and I also became one of the executives in the school festival committee. To say it was busy around the time we had festivals would not be an understatement. I have memories of shouting in a telephone when we were missing people for the spring festival.

My dad got a more permanent position in Tokyo at that time as well. I found that to be good thing because he had been quite absent in my life. The only times I saw him was during Golden week, two weeks during the summer vacation, New Year's festival plus one weekend a month. He apologized to me but it took me a while to accept it. He helped my grandfather by hiring in a couple of priests that was looking for a job. I was happy that my dad took that decision since it lifted a burden from my grandfather's shoulders. This meant that I had more time to do typical teenage stuff with the other sailor soldiers. We went clubbing or visited karaoke bars plus having slumber parties. I let out a snort of laughter when I remembered one time we had a slumber party at the shrine. At some point, we had a competition about telling the scariest ghost story. I told one that my grandfather had told me years ago about an Aka Manto that haunted the toilets at the shrine forty years ago. We did not sleep much that night.

But when my senior year started, it was time for me to decide where I wanted to study. I did enjoy my job at the shrine but it probably would not bring in a sufficient amount of money I wished for. But at the university recruitment event, I found something that caught my heart. The Bunkyo Gakuin University offered a degree in business administration which would come in handy later. I studied quite hard in my last year in study groups with my friends or classmates. There were some nights we did not finished until midnight, but it paid off. I got quite good results at my entrance exams and was accepted into the university. I was not the only one; Mina landed a spot at Soka University, Ami scored a spot at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Usagi had been accepted into Toita Women's college while Makoto would attend Le Cordon Bleu.

* * *

My father was more than willing to pay for my education. He said it was the least thing he could do because he knew it would give me a big advantage at the job market. Not to mention that my dad had a bachelor degree himself that had given him his job later on. My first year was basically a broad foundation course within the different areas of management and communication. I had classes concerning product planning strategies, public relations, sales promotions as well as e-marketing. The latter was quite a new course since internet had just started to become a common household thing. Most of my classes were quite small with only 25 students at the most. This meant that we got to know each other quite well, which was a good thing. None of the sailor soldiers studied at my school but we were all living in Tokyo during our university period.

A majority of the guys in my class were male but there were a number of females there too. One of them happened to be one of my former festival assistants Yukiko, who later became a very good friend of mine. I joined a couple of clubs during my time at university too. I became a member of the Japanese folklore club plus the traditional arts. This was where my interest for calligraphy took off. My grandfather had enrolled me into calligraphy classes at the shrine but I had no time for them as a teenager (I blame my role as Sailor Mars here). But now, I had time as well as the patience to focus on what I was doing. My previous experiences as a sailor soldier helped out in my studies a bit. Even though I had not been the leader like Usagi, I knew that you had to be clear as well as encouraging in order to succeed. The 'sailor soldier' strategy worked out perfectly and I got good feedback from my teachers. All though I did not like the modern social studies or basic accountancy that much, I had to get through it. At least I had a minor I enjoyed, which was Asian history.

My first test of my leadership arrived when I had finished my first year; I had to act as an executive for the annual summer festival at the shrine. I felt a bit nervous despite that I was usually a rather confident person. One of the other executives was my grandfather (Chad had moved to Nagano to study there) while one of the new priests was the third executives. Things we had to plan were decorations, what sort of traditional Japanese entertainment we should have plus the prices of everything. I have to admit that I did some bad decisions but it came out pretty good. I decided to focus a bit more on my leadership qualities as well as my grades during my second year. My grades did not improve as much as I had hoped but my leadership qualities got a nice improvement.

I then met my boyfriend in the end of my second year. His name was Hisao Fujiyama and was a fresh member of the Japanese folklore club. Despite being at the same age as me, he was a Shinto priest in training. His parents owned a shrine that was ten blocks away from where mine was. We decided to take it slow for two reasons. One: Both of us had rather traditional parents (and grandparent in my case). Two: Neither of us had a very big experience with relationships. I still remember when I was going to meet his parents for the first time…I was EXTREMELY nervous. His father was a somewhat strict looking man while his mother reminded me a bit of a traditional geisha. Good thing that I had brought them some fruit and biscuits that they both enjoyed (thank you Hisao). The meeting with my father went a little worse since my boyfriend knew of his position. His nerves caused him to stutter for the first ten minutes of the meeting until I told him that my dad was not as scary as he looked. Things went better after that and all of our parents came to an agreement.

During my fourth year, I was enrolled as an intern at a local firm that specialized in marketing related to tourism. I was assisting an executive named Nobu. My job consisted of a lot of tasks; I did everything from talking with guides to planning tasks for some local museums. That year was quite busy but I learned a heap of things. Some of them were to maintain my English skills while number two was to keep cool. Thank Kami that Nobu was a patient guy since I had a tendency of yelling/screaming/throwing some stuff around every time I got very stressed. He told me that it was not abnormal that people got stressed out in positions like this. My dad and my grandfather were very proud of me when I graduated that spring with good grades plus a nice reference from the company where I had been interning.

* * *

My real job started right after I had graduated. I was promoted to work as a priestess at the shrine, so I could now live at the priest/priestess house at the grounds. The house had three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms plus a nice living room. My grandfather gave me some of his tasks since he had retired when I had started at university. I have to thank my dad for this one because he had hired in the extra help. The first thing on the priority list was to get to know my team well. We were a total of four priests who worked at the shrine. I had only two miko's though, so we had to recruit two or three more. This was in the early 2000's where Japan had started to play a bigger role internationally. More Japanese animation movies were released on the international market while more companies started to work in Europe or opposite. This meant that it was important that we kept up the character of the shrine as well as promoting it in a more effective manner. Some of the strategies we came up with was to sell some traditional Japanese cookies for certain holidays plus arranging 'open days' where tourists could explore the shrine. Both of these plans turned out to be a success since we got more visitors than earlier. Some of these were a bit stupid (I still remember the Americans who thought that miko was the same as miso) while others were sincerely interested. I tried my best to not become a "sell-out" since I was one of those who were in charge. Especially since the tourists came here to see a TRADITONAL Japanese shrine and not some cheap wannabe stuff.

It was a good thing that I knew Hisao; we occasionally worked together when there were big holidays coming up. My father was still working in Tokyo but travelled a bit more than what he used to do during my high school years. I did not mind this because I was a legit adult now who did not needed supervision by adults anymore. Me and Hisao then went on our first holiday to Vietnam when we had been together for five years. I had visited a number of countries with my dad such as China or Fiji, so I was not that unfamiliar with traveling abroad. But Vietnam was a completely different experience because we decided to visit the countryside for a couple of days as well. The contrast was striking…I never forget what I saw. Not because it was particularly horrible but because I had never seen anything like that.

I then got a promotion the following year and got the new title as head priestess. We were only two priestesses at that shrine but it was still an achievement. I was now allowed to live at the head priest/head priestess house at the grounds, which was a nice bonus. Sharing house with the others was nice but it got a little cramped sometimes. Not to mention that I now had my own bedroom that was a little larger than the previous one.

It was at this time that I started to get more offers from schools as well as museums to hold presentations or classes. Due to my position at the shrine, there was a limit of how much I could participate on. Not to mention that some of these things could be quite boring or experience rudeness. There was one time I held a presentation for some foreign businessmen who were not satisfied since I was a female. Thank Kami they did not speak Japanese that well (let's just say I gave them a verbal karate-chop while they were discussing something). Others were more fun; I once held a kanji lesson for teens as well as university students from other countries. But the penny dropped when I was going to have a two-week calligraphy course at a local school. I got a good relationship with the students and the teachers there. After the course was finished, they asked me if I could have one or two lessons per week for the rest of the year. I said yes since it would bring some extra income. Extra income could be something I needed; I was 26 at that time. Money like that could come in handy in case Hisao wanted to marry me or if I got pregnant. Or even both if I was lucky was a wise decision because I got my family wish granted just a couple months later.

* * *

For some reason, I suddenly could not stand certain smells. Most of these were related to drinks with alcohol or a sour smell like lemonade. I decided to ask someone from a Shinto shrine in a neighbor ward to do a purification ritual on me since I had a similar experience back in my teens. When the aversion persisted, I decided to visit the doctor. She took a couple blood tests and told me to stay away from alcohol plus getting enough sleep. I got the results back ten days later in the mailbox. A small wave of shock went through me when I realized that I was carrying a baby. Hisao was a bit shocked to hear the news as well but he told me that he would not reject the baby. We were both in our mid-twenties after all and were mature enough to take care of the baby. Both of us then went through our finances as well as our hearts to make sure we took the right decision. Luckily, Hisao got the pay rise and we decided to keep the baby. Both of our parents plus my grandfather were happy for us...especially my father because this would be his first grandchild.

I was not the only one who got pregnant though. Many of them were pregnant after I had passed my first trimester. We decided to have a baby bash on May 5th since it was the children's day. Ami as well as Minako were three months along while Makoto and Usagi just had about a month left. I joked that we would probably give birth to a new generation of sailor soldiers because they were all going to be roughly at the same age.

My baby then announced her entrance two weeks before schedule. I had a dinner with some of the priests that day, so they called the ambulance right away. Hisao HAD warned me about this because he had been borne a month early but still…! It did not make matters much better that the birth lasted a total of TEN FRIGGIN HOURS! But I was happy when I got my baby girl in my hands; I saw right away that she had inherited my energetic eyes. My boyfriend arrived right away and we decided to name her Eiko after his grandmother. Eiko was a nice baby but was a bit on the hyper side; nothing was safe when she learned how to walk. I had to take a crash-course in how to baby-proof the house from Hisao since his niece had been on the hyper side too. Apart from the hyperactivity, Eiko was not a bad baby. She could wake up quite early in the morning but she did not cry that much. I took nine months off and started to work 65% when my daughter became a year old. Hisao worked full time. On our seventh year anniversary, he proposed to me. I said yes since I had no reason to turn down the offer. We had a child together plus that we had lived together for three years. Neither of us wanted to hurry with the wedding, especially when I became pregnant again.

My second pregnancy was more planned than the first. I knew how it was to not have a sibling while my fiancé knew how it was. This pregnancy was a bit worse due to the increased morning sickness I had gotten. If I just smelled something with alcohol, I got a green tone in my face. My second child was only a week early and Hisao was able to get me to the hospital this time. It took only eight hours until our son entered our world. We decided to name him Takeo after my grandfather, which he was ecstatic about. Takeo was not as hyper as Eiko but was still a curious baby. I had to laugh when he once had put on one of my bras on his head. Eiko was happy to have a baby brother and she entered kindergarten a couple months after his birth. I started working 65% when my son was a year while Hisao worked 80%. We both started working full-time when our daughter started school three years later.

I won't lie; the economy was a bit tight during the years we had children. There were plenty of times were we had to buy cheap brands in the supermarket or second-hand clothes. But at least we had my head priestess house to live in (which was made for a family). We married each other last year in the shrine Hisao worked at last year. I think that was the first time I saw my father cry. The second time happened only a month later when my grandfather passed away due to pneumonia. It was the saddest day of my life…he had been a surrogate parent for the last thirty years. My husband tried to comfort me the best he could because he knew how important grandpa had been to me. It took me some time to get over it, but I had to stay strong for my children. I still work as a head priestess and I have calligraphy lessons twice a week at a nearby elementary school. Hisao got promoted two months ago as a senior priest (he can't become head priest since he lives here) with a small pay raise. Takeo started doing karate four months ago and I figured it would be a good way for him to learn some self-defense. Eiko on the other hand is attending after-school lessons in Japanese and is a member of her school basketball team.

* * *

"Almost done now" I muttered as I stirred the miso soup. My eyes glanced up at the watch that hung on the wall; it was 05:50 PM now. My son's karate lesson was finished twenty minutes ago, so he should be home soon. Not to mention that my daughter would have finished her basketball training ten minutes ago or so. 'Won't be long until they're home now' I thought with a small smile. "Did you see how awesome I was dad?" inquired a familiar voice after I heard the door opened. "I did Takeo-kun" replied my husband. "Mum, what are you cooking?" asked Eiko as she entered the kitchen. "Some miso soup with veggies and pork" I answered with a grin. "Hey Rei-chan. Want me to put on the plates?" suggested Hisao. "That would be lovely" I muttered, happy for the help I could get. He removed four plates from the cabinet and placed them on the table. I turned down the temperature a little so the vegetables did not get too cooked…I liked it when they were a bit on the crunchy side.

My daughter poured some water into a mug while my son threw the adverts in the garbage can. The soup was ready five minutes later and I placed the kettle onto the table. We all talked about how our day had been so far. Takeo had performed some badass self-defense moves at the karate while Eiko had learned two new kanjis at the after-school Japanese lessons. A warm smile formed at my face…the passion of Mars had helped me to create the life that I wanted.


	5. Chapter 5: Makoto Kino

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've all enjoyed your holidays. I'm sorry if the next two chapters are a bit longer, but they are my favorites. There was not much back story about Makoto's parents except that they died in a plane crash when she was ten or so. Since I found it a bit unreasonable that a 14-year old lives alone, I tweaked the story a bit. I hope it does not ruin the reading experience.

Things to look for:

Les Vesinet: Suburb near Paris.

Hattori Nutrition College and Le Cordon Bleu: Culinary schools in Tokyo. The former got quite famous after being featured in "The Iron Chef".

Tottoro: An animated movie made by Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli has made movies like "Kiki's delivery service", "Princess Mononoke", "Ponyo" plus many more.

Sagawa Express: A major transportation company with its headquarters in Kyoto.

Coming up now is Sailor Jupiter! What is going on now for her?

* * *

**Chapter five: The sailor of thunder and courage.**

My eyes then glanced at the list of those I had to send New Year's cards to. 'Grandpa…grandma…my uncle…my employees at the bakery…the sailor girls in Tokyo…wait a second' I thought when I noticed something. Hotaru's envelope had no address on it. 'Pretty sure she moved out of Tokyo for a couple months ago. I better text her' I thought as I pulled up my cell phone. 'Hello Hotaru. Could you please send me your new address? I don't have it on my New Year's card list. Xoxo Makoto' I typed in.

'Great' I thought as I laid the last card in the envelope. My husband had taken the children to the cinema while I could enjoy a peaceful night. Don't misunderstand me; I love to have my family around. But it can be a bit noisy sometimes. I felt a small sting in my chest when I remembered my own parents.

They died in an airplane crash for about 15 years ago when I was just ten years old. I then moved to my grandparents who lived in another part of Tokyo. They rented out the apartment to save up for later. When I turned 14, they both retired so I volunteered to move to a small apartment in Tokyo. My grandparents were a bit reluctant but I knew it would be better for them this way. The childcare services agreed on two conditions. One: I had to visit my grandparents during the weekends as well as the major holidays. Two: I had to share an apartment with an adult that my grandparents knew.

That adult was one of my older cousins who worked as an executive in a catering business. I had always loved cooking, but it took off from then. Not to mention that I met Usagi a couple weeks later. My mouth then turned into a smile when I remembered how my life changed back then.

* * *

A couple of months after Galaxia had been defeated, Rini went back home. She had now officially finished her training as a sailor scout. The sailor scouts had very few to no missions after our worst enemy so far had been defeated. I found this to be a good thing because we only had two years left prior to our university entrance exams. When I started on my second year, I became the president of the school's cooking club together with one of the seniors. Usagi joined the cooking club a little later and we had a lot of fun together. But I can also recall going clubbing, singing karaoke plus having slumber parties with the sailor scouts. There was one time where we had a 'super-karaoke-showdown' at Christmas where the winner would get a gift card at the jewelry shop where Naru's (AN: Molly in the American dub) mother worked. It was a pretty intense showdown (I had lost in the first round against Minako) but the finalists were Minako as well as Michuru. The latter came out as the winner after a close call.

I also decided to join the athletics club due to my need to exercise. It was something that was apparently in my blood. My parents were complete opposites physically. My dad looked like the average Japanese man colour-wise; he had pitch black hair with matching brown eyes. But that was when the similarities stopped. He was a whopping 180 cm (AN: 5 feet 11 inches) tall with a rather burly muscle build. My mother on the other hand was a petite 158 cm (AN: 5 feet and 2 inches) tall with a slim body built. She did however have emerald green eyes plus naturally curly fair hair. It was darker than Usagi or Minako's but lighter than my auburn locks. My grandmother told me that my father had a third dan in judo and had trained since he was merely nine years old.

One of my major worries about entering university was the costs. All of my grandparents were fortunately still alive but my maternal ones lived in Kyoto. Two of my uncles already had a family while my aunt did not have much of a connection with me. The main reason for this was because she taught Japanese in Les Vesinet (I only saw her once a year or so).

My paternal grandparents told me they had saved up enough money to afford a two-year course. Mamoru told me that I should attempt to get an orphan scholarship since he had done that when he started studying at university. His scholarship had apparently paid half of his year abroad studies and I decided to give it a go.

* * *

There were not a lot of culinary schools to choose from in Tokyo, so I decided to apply for all of them. I started to attend a public cramming school in physics as well as mathematics in order to improve my grades a little. The reason for this was that all of the schools required a copy of my high school diploma. In my spare time, I helped out my cousin in her catering business in order to practice my cooking skills. The last year of high school was my most busy year but it paid off. Even though my first school of choice (Hattori Nutrition College) had turned me down, Le Cordon Bleu had accepted my application. I was not the only one to get accepted into a school. Rei had been enrolled into Bunkyo Gakuin University, Usagi was now accepted into Toita Women's College, Ami would continue her education at Tokyo Medical and Dental University while Minako was now a student at Soka University. All of us would stay in Tokyo during our further education but not at the same school.

Studying at a culinary school was like a dream come true for me. My grandparents were ecstatic and so were I. Another plus was that I got an orphan scholarship that would pay my first year plus the equipment required. This meant that I did not have to worry about the financial part, which was a HUGE relief. There were about 20 students in each class but some had a bit more. The downside was that I did not know any of the students in my new class; some of them were already out of their teens. I had decided to go into pastry since I loved baking cakes more than anything else. The first year was where we learned the basics on how to make French pastry. Some of the stuff on the curriculum were how to make sour dough for brioche, logic thinking of how to use ingredients as well as how basic cream should be made. The schedule was all right; I had Wednesdays off so I could spend some time catching up as well as exercising. I enrolled at a local karate club to continue my training. My skills were a bit rusty because I did not train them that much when I was a teenager (you don't have time to exercise when you're busy fighting against evil aliens).

Culinary school was a bit harder than I had expected due to the logical thinking. I was more of a practical person who learned more from doing rather than reading or solving equations. At least I had a lot of practice thanks to my hobby cooking plus the time I had worked for my cousin. My teachers gave me nice feedback in cases where we had to bake cakes mixed with fruit. I have to thank Usagi as well as Ami for this one; they both loved my cherry pie as well as my strawberry shortcake.

* * *

I had put romance on the shelf after I had turned 17 due to my focus on getting into university. Plus that I have had my share of unlucky encounters through my teens. One of them was Tiger's Eye while another had been the host of a star seed. But this changed when I was put on the same group with a guy during a baking event at the end of my first year. His name was Tatsuo Kimura and had just changed class (he was studying bakery). One thing that made him stand out was his height; he was an incredible 178 cm (AN: 5 feet and 10 inches) tall with a somewhat lanky body. He claimed it was due to his high metabolism.

Tatsuo was a relatively nice guy who did not seem to be put off that I could carry heavy boxes without too much struggle. His father was the executive of a foreign bakery chain while his mother was working as a senior hairdresser. Another thing was that he was not as unreliable as some of the guys I had dated. I remember one particular occasion where I was too ill to attend school. Tatsuo was nice enough to send in my assignment plus picking up my uniform at the laundry service on campus. We started dating in October that year.

But I could not let this get to my head; my second year was a lot more challenging than the first one. Our new curriculum had things like the French petite fours plus introduction to bread baking. But one of the hardest new things was how you could create things with chocolate. Using chocolate in bakery was not easy; we had to learn different dipping techniques for example. Not to mention that it was quite delicious as well…thank Kami that we were under strict supervision. Another new thing (which was more fun) was the artistic part of our cooking. Let's just say that I have never thought of a cake piper in the ways I did during the decoration process of a cake.

Despite that the second year was busy, I tried to find times to spend time with Tatsuo. Some of the things we did were to watch Jackie Chan movies since we were both fans of him or visit the library. I then decided to ask him to be my boyfriend right after I had turned 20. To my huge relief, he said yes. We continued to support each other through my third and last year. Some of the main things we had to learn were how to personalize our cakes plus combining all that we had learnt so far. These things were not as hard as I had feared but I struggled a bit with the former. I had to go through my mind in order to come up with a style. My choice then felt on my sailor scout colours plus my symbol. This was right in time for our graduation exam where we had to show our work. I was quite nervous at that day to say at the least. But the chefs who were examining us were satisfied and I was then handed my diploma. I was now an official pastry chef!

* * *

Tatsuo was on his last year of the program while I had started to work as a novice pastry chef in a cake-baking company. The pay was a bit low, but I knew I would get paid more once I became more experienced. My senior was a nice woman named Yuka who had been in the business for nearly ten years. Some of the tasks I had to do were to help her clean up (not unexpected but still boring) as well as sharing some of her workload. The latter proved out to be quite helpful since the company had all sorts of cakes. One particular experience I remember was when I had to help making a wedding cake for a winter wedding. I had to mix the peach filling plus decorating the cake with white chocolate. The executive pastry chef gave me a number of tips that I made sure to write down in my tips-book. This book contained a lot of advices and tricks that people had given me (I still have it). It felt good when the cake was sent to the wedding nine days later. What made it more amazing was when the newly-wedded couple sent us a thanking card for making the lovely cake. All of it had apparently been eaten up. Afterwards, I was given more responsibility in the baking process. A majority of these were "easier" cakes that people had ordered for birthdays or company events. I was also given the chance to participate in making more complex cakes such as wedding cakes or cakes ordered for anniversaries.

I swallowed a small lump in my throat when I remember the first cake that I made from scratch. It was a birthday cake for a girl who was going to turn 13. The cake itself was made out of a thin layer of white marzipan with a sprinkle of cocoa powder at the top. She was apparently so pleased with it that her parents had recommended it to their friends. Tatsuo graduated at the end of that year plus that he had gotten a job in Tokyo. But the hitch was that this job would only last for about a year…what was he going to do afterwards?

He told me that he had plans to work at the new café that his fathered had planned to open in Kyoto next fall. I thought a bit on that as well because my contract would expire in two years. His family then invited me to join them on a two week holiday to Paris. I said yes immediately for two reasons. One: I could visit my aunt. Two: I could possibly fit in a cooking class there. Even though the flight was long, it was DEFINITELY worth it. My aunt was thrilled to see me because I had not seen her since my college graduation.

The holiday also gave me an opportunity to discuss my relationship with Tatsuo. He was going to move next year and I told him that I was willing to move with him. We had been together for nearly three years plus that we were adults with steady jobs. My nerves were on the high end but my boyfriend agreed. But there was a hitch; I had to find a job there. I called my grandparents once I was back in Kyoto plus that I sent heaps of job applications to the city. I then landed a job at a company that delivered cakes to various bakeries in the city right before my 25th birthday. The payment was the same as the one in my current job but I could advance a little faster due to my experience. When the following summer arrived, I packed my things to move into the two-room apartment Tatsuo had found (I let him be in charge of that part). My grandparents gave me my parent's old apartment since I had a steady job. I decided to rent it out because I was going with Kyoto with Tatsuo. Kyoto was an exciting city despite that it was smaller than Tokyo was. My boyfriend had gotten an all right internship while I started out as a semi-fresh pastry chef. But it was not as fun as I had thought it would be since I got a higher number of tasks outside of my comfort zone. The work paid off though since I became an executive pastry chef two years later. Tatsuo was elated and so was I. But there were more surprises to arrive…

* * *

The first sign was when I missed my period. I thought it was just stress because of the hectic time at the bakery. But when I started to feel nauseous close to my 27th birthday, it was time to take action. I booked a doctor appointment to make sure I had not gotten a disease or something. Vomiting on the job was by no means any fun because the cakes had to be bacteria free. The results arrived eleven days later…I WAS PREGNANT! I had always wanted to have a child (or two really) but I had to discuss this with Tatsuo because he was the father.

He was a bit in shock when I told him that I was carrying his child. My boyfriend told me that he would need a couple of days to think about this. After three days, he told me that he wanted to keep the baby if I wanted to as well. I was over the moon…I was going to be a mother!

The first trimester was a bit tough due to my morning sickness. One of my colleagues told me that using ginger as well as peppermint in my diet could work. Another advised me to get plenty of sleep plus avoiding strong smells. I tried out all of them and they worked perfectly fine. The rest of my pregnancy went relatively well apart from my egg cravings. Plus that I felt a little sad when I could not train karate as much as I liked to.

But I was not the only one who was expecting. It appeared that the whole sailor scout circle was getting pregnant together. We had a baby bash at the 5th of May since it was children's day. Usagi had about a month left, Rei was on her sixth month while Minako and Ami were three months along.

My baby girl then announced her entrance to the world in the middle of June. I was at home, so I called the ambulance straight away. Tatsuo arrived five hours later because he had been in Yokohama that day to meet a friend of his. It was a good thing that I was in good physical shape or else the birth would have been harder. A nurse then handed me my baby girl after about eight hours of pushing. She had inherited my eyes but she had without a doubt her father's nose. We decided to name her Masami after my paternal grandmother. My grandparents as well as my boyfriend's parents were ecstatic when they heard about this.

The first two months were a bit hectic because my daughter had a sleeping rhythm that was a bit out of the kilter. We decided to sleep on shift until her bedtime got a bit more sensible. Ami came to visit me a little bit later to see how I was doing. She was a bit anxious herself, but I cannot blame her since she worked in a hospital. Masami was a relatively healthy baby who did not cry that much and Tatsuo went back to work six weeks after her birth. I was a little anxious being away for ten months because of my executive position. But my boss ensured me it would be fine. I started working 50% ten months later and became the tutor assistent of two new pastry chefs who were both fresh out of school. Both of them were girls who had just graduated from a new culinary school in Kyoto and were eager to start working. Tatsuo and I then discussed if we should become owners of the place where he worked. The money I had earned via renting out my apartment would give us a nice start. An accountant was currently renting my apartment (he had a two year contract). We spoke with my boyfriend's parents and they both agreed as long as we kept some of the staff members like the accountant plus the cleaning staff. We said yes and we then discussed if we should give Masami a sibling. We tried out and I became pregnant again.

This pregnancy went better than the first; I did not have any morning sickness. Tatsuo kept working while I cut down my job percentage to 50-60% until my eight month. It was hard to keep a business going but at least we had some experience. My baby then arrived to the world close to Chinese New Year's eve and it was a boy. We decided to name him Toru after Tatsuo's maternal grandfather. My baby boy slept a bit more than his sister but he demanded more food. My boyfriend joked that he had probably inherited his appetite. I found it good was good because Toru would probably be bigger than average thanks to our genes. Masami entered kindergarten a couple months later while I returned to work ten months after my son's birth. We both worked 50% until Toru became two years old. It was not easy to co-ordinate our work but at least we were more in charge of our working hours. Toru entered kindergarten about a year before Masami was enrolled into elementary school. She had apparently inherited my love for martial arts according to her P.E teacher, so I signed her into judo lessons. Toru however was a bigger fan of kendo (no surprise since his father trained it as well) and started his lessons quite recently. Our café is doing just fine; we get a steady stream of costumers. We decided to let our family use my Tokyo apartment as long as they pay a small fee to us for it.

* * *

A small 'bip-bip-bip' rang through the room. I picked up my phone and noticed that Hotaru had replied. 'So that's her new address huh…not a bad spot to live in' I thought before I wrote down the address at the envelope. A smile formed onto my face since that was my last envelope.

"MUMMY!" shouted two voices that came from the entrance. A smile formed onto my face when I realized that my family had returned. "How was the movie?" I inquired after I had given them a hug. "It was AMAZING!" exclaimed Toru with wide hazel eyes. "Mhm! I had no idea what sort of movie Tottoro was until I saw it! I really liked it!" replied Masami with a gleam in her forest green eyes. "Good to hear that…I really enjoyed Tottoro too. Why don't you two throw your laundry in the laundry basket while I make some omelet for evening food?" I suggested. "Do we have to?" groaned my son. "Yes, you do. I can't clean your clothes if they're not in the laundry" I answered. Both of my kids went upstairs while my boyfriend returned with a huge smile. "Guess what Mako-chan?" inquired the guy. "What?" I asked. "We just got two nice orders from Sagawa Express! They want us to make two cakes for their event in five weeks!" exclaimed Tatsuo. My eyes widened in joy. "REALLY? That's AMAZING!" I yelled before I hugged my boyfriend. Jupiter had given me the strength I needed to fulfill my degree, being a good girlfriend plus giving birth to two lovely children. And strength was a vital quality to have in order to get through life.

* * *

I hoped you liked the chapter! Please read and review! I appreciate constructive reviews. They don't have to be long but one-liners are a bit too short in my opinion.


	6. Chapter 6: Hotaru Tomoe

Hello everyone! This will be my second last chapter in my installment. I have planned to do Haruka and Michuru in one. If anyone has any opinions about this, please PM me or mention it in your review.

Hotaru's story will be a bit more in detail because she have not had any children yet and is fresh out of university. I was not sure of the age she was in Sailor Stars, so I just wrote that she was six years old. Her age has varied a lot during the series and I found it hard to keep up!

Things to look for:

Ueno station: A very large train station located in the Taitõ ward in Tokyo.

Toyohashi: A city located in the Aichi prefecture. The city is about two-three hours away from Tokyo with the train.

JR Keihin Tohoku line and Oedo line: Train lines in Tokyo.

Azabu-Jûban: A station in the Minato ward. The author of Sailor Moon grew up in this district and the series takes place here.

Hokkaido: The northern most island of Japan. Some of the famous cities there are Sapporo and Hakodate.

Yamanashi University: A university in Kofu. Kofu is a city that is about two hours west of Tokyo with the train.

Coming up now is Sailor Saturn! What has changed since Galaxia left?

* * *

**Chapter six: The sailor of death and rebirth.**

"Next stop: Ueno station" called the voice over the intercom. I looked out of the window and saw the inky blue sky with slate gray clouds floating over Tokyo. 'Whoa…'I thought as the train passed some buildings. It was nice to come back to Tokyo again after a somewhat hectic period at my job. Working as a nurse could be quite stressful at times but I could not complain. At least Toyohashi was not as busy as my hometome was...

New Year's Eve was just around the corner and I had promised to celebrate it with my dad as well as my grandparents. Two of my cousins would visit us tomorrow. I exited the train with my suitcase as I entered Ueno station. 'Let's see. I need to take the JR Keihin Tohoku line to Hamamatsucho station. Then, I have to take the train to Azabu-Jûban' I thought while I looked down at the map. I lined up behind a couple of children who were going to buy tickets for the subway. Ueno station was quite busy; a lot of people had come back home to celebrate New Year's Eve with their family. I saw families with small children pushing through the crowd plus middle aged adults who hugged their elderly parents.

My eyes glanced up at a large television screen that was at the opposite wall. It was a concert with an orchestra that played a number of classic songs. "Up next is Tchaikovsky's Violin concerto in D major. This music piece will be performed by the top fifteen violinists in Japan! Give them a warm welcome" announced the host. The camera zoomed in at the orchestra that started to play on a soothing violin piece. 'NO WAY…IS THAT…!?' I thought as the camera swept past a familiar head of aqua hair. It was MICHURU! Seeing her made me smile as I remembered my days as a sailor soldier.

* * *

A couple of months after the battle with Galaxia, Rini went back home. She had now officially finished her training as a sailor scout. I was really sad at that time because we were such good friends despite the initial age gap. There were not a lot of missions for the sailor scouts either after Galaxia had been beat. Setsuna was still assigned as my guardian and I lived at Haruka and Michiru's house since my father was in therapy. I did miss my dad quite a bit but the outer sailor scouts were a good replacement. They gave me private lessons, made sure I had everything I needed plus attending PTA's. The latter could be a bit odd due to Setsuna's young age (she appeared to be in her mid-twenties). I was allowed to visit my dad every weekend at the hospital plus that he visited me during the major holidays. There were however a couple of obstacles due to my new age. According to the birth certificate, I was borne at 6th January 1981. But my body however was only six or seven years old. Setsuna then had to make a new birth certificate that stated that I was born at 6th January 1988. It was quite a hassle, but Haruka thankfully had some good connections. The mansion we had lived in was now taken over by my mother's younger sister who was now stationed at an office based in Tokyo (she originally lived in Toyohashi). My father and she agreed that the rest of the house could be rented to exchange students, university students, interns or foreigners who could not find a place to live. It turned out to be a great idea because the house could have up to ten people at once excluding my aunt. She was a fairly nice person who did some of Setsuna's guardian work sometimes. My aunt often picked me up at school, went grocery shopping with me, helping me with my school work plus other small things. The senior sailor scout was happy for that because she was working at a lab that could have late shifts.

Setsuna have had me enrolled into a nearby elementary school that I still attended after Galaxia had been defeated. My body was not as weak as it was prior to my rebirth because I did not host Mistress 9 anymore. This was a major upside; I could now participate in P.E. classes plus that my healing power had disappeared. But the biggest plus was that I was not considered as a weirdo anymore due to my lost healing power. This meant that I now had some real friends that were at my age. We had slumber parties, visited the park, have trips to the swimming hall plus a lot more things. I did not remember much of the time before Mistress 9 took over my body apart from some odd glimpses. Some of them involved me with Rini while others were painful memories of my school days. A huge event then happened close to my eighth birthday. My father had completed his therapy and was considered able to be my guardian again. This was great since Michuru and Haruka was going to start at university. I felt a bit sad when that happened...I pretty much considered them as my aunts. My dad worked 75% as a doctor at a local clinic since he was not able to work full time. We moved back into the house but we rented out most of it since my aunt had moved out. I was soon going to start my career at lower secondary school (AN: Junior high school for American readers).

Even though my grades were not that bad, I was enrolled into cramming school. I only took math, English as well as science. My dad told me it was better to start now because I had two years to improve my grades. It was not a bad idea since I wanted to be prepared for the next school stage. I also decided to take ballroom dancing lessons in order to get in better shape. The majority of dances focused on "classic" dances such as waltz or foxtrot. I do remember that we had some mambo as well as salsa too. Dancing was not as exhausting as athletics for instance plus that it trained the major muscle groups (so much for having a doctor dad). Because my dad was not in therapy anymore, we went on a couple trips around Japan as well as other countries. We visited my father's older brother plus my cousins in Sapporo when I was ten plus some Asian countries like Vietnam.

* * *

Two years later, I managed to get into a rather good lower secondary school. I was a bit apprehensive about it because I had some bad memories about that. My dad ensured me it would be fine; things had changed since then. He turned out to be right in some ways because two of my friends were in my class. One of the girls from my dance classes were in there as well. The things that had NOT changed were that people bullied those who were 'losers' or 'nerds'. I was a bit of a nerd but my years as a sailor soldier had taught me to stand up for myself. Apart from that, lower secondary school was not that horrible. I experimented a bit with makeup when I turned 14 (my dad had banned it from the house until then) as well as finding my own clothing style. But there were a couple of embarrassing situations too. Even thugh my dad is a very nice guy, it's not easy to tell him that you want to try out bras or that you have your period. Thank Kami that I had my friends as well as my cousins who could help me with that…I missed having a mother there at those points.

Lower secondary was however a bit of fun despite the puberty/popularity stuff. When I turned 13, my father gave me my first cellphone plus that my cousin from Sapporo took me underwear shopping a week later. Another milestone was when my dancing group went on a competition to Yokohama. It was in the spring after my 14th birthday. Some of the parents were with us, but my father was not one of them. The competition was a blast despite that we were out of the tournament in the round of 16. We met teams from all over Japan (including one from Okinawa!). It felt nice to grow up at an even pace in contrast of going from one to six years old in just a couple of weeks. I continued my attendance at cramming school because my father wanted me to maintain my grades. We still did a couple of fun things together despite that I was older now. A small laugh escaped my mouth when I remember the time my father attended the father-daughter dance. He did not have much rhythm in his body at all and stepped at my feet at least twice. It hurt a bit but the only thing I got was a couple of bruises. One year later, I was going to apply for an upper secondary school (AN: Senior high school or high school for Americans). A part of me was a bit nervous because I wanted to get into a good school.

I did not attend my dancing lessons for about a month in order to focus on my entrance exams. My grades were a bit higher than average but I was not a genius like some of my classmates. But the effort paid off as I got into the fourth best high school in the part of Tokyo I lived in. Since there were ten of them, I was quite pleased. My father was quite happy as well and I got a nice set of jewelry as a reward. The new school was a lot bigger than my previous one plus that it had a uniform that consisted of a blazer plus a skirt rather than a sailor uniform. It felt a bit odd because that uniform had been such an important part of my life. Only two of my five closest friends had gotten into that school, so I decided to join the book club plus the traditional Japanese art club. I still did dancing but only twice a week instead of three times. I did some basic exercises to keep up my fitness to break up the monotony a bit. The Japanese art club was a club where we practiced calligraphy as well as origami. When I turned 16, I went on my first school club trip to Kyoto. This was a bit different than the dance competition because we got freer reins. It was a trip to remember; we saw geishas perform at stage as well as learning how to put on a kimono properly.

But university was coming up to a close…I had to decide what I wanted to do. It was not hard for me because I still had a dream of becoming a nurse. The last three months of upper secondary school was a complete nightmare. I made sure to get enough sleep, but I lost weight as well as feeling weak due to the stress. A part of me was happy when the exam day finally arrived so I could get this over. I applied for five universities that were all over Japan and crossed my fingers. The answer arrived a couple months later. One of the universities had wait-listed me, two had declined while the other two had accepted me.

A part of me wanted to move out of Tokyo because I had lived there for a while. But I did not wanted to live in Hokkaido though. I had a chat with my dad to hear what he thought about this (he WAS my parent as well as in the medical business). He told me to go with my heart since both of the universities had a rather good reputation. I decided to go for Yamanashi University in Kofu; Aomori was too far away for my liking anyways. I had gotten a nice single dorm room there and my dad drove me there at the end of the summer holidays. A small lump in my throat formed when I remembered the car driving away…I was officially at my own.

* * *

University life was not that bad really. Most of those who lived in the same hallway as me were girls while the guys were relatively calm. The starting lessons were about the human body's structure as well as understanding of humans in society. I found the lessons to be quite intriguing to be honest. There was a bit of partying going on, but I was not the most avid participant. I was attending them if they had fun themes such as 'The samurai/geisha era' or 'Wear one colour from top to toe'. I did not get a lot of friends sadly but I got well along with most of my classmates. I made sure to stay in touch with my old friends from school as well as my dancing lessons via MSN or Skype. The program I was attending was one for registered nurses because they would get a license at the end. Plus that they had a higher chance of getting jobs than midwives for instance.

Unfortunately, I had to cut down my dance lessons due to the price. I danced once a week but I decided to train more yoga instead. Becoming flexible was a bit tricky despite that I was a dancer. Plus that I suddenly realized why people were so exhausted after a yoga class. My second year was centered on basic nursing as well as clinical nursing. We learned about how to bath the patients (not so enjoyable), cleaning wounds, change IV needles plus oral hygiene. All of the subjects were a bit more interesting than the ones in my first year. I smiled as I remembered the holiday where I went to Halifax and New York with my aunt the following summer. She wanted me to come with her since my dad had to go to a huge conference in Nagano that lasted ten days. He agreed and I was elated when he told me that. I visited the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, the Province house, the Old Town Clock, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire state building as well as doing some shopping with my aunt. It was probably one of the best vacations in my life so far.

My third year was a bit more challenging when I started with specialized subjects. I decided to go for adult health and child health nursing as my specializations. I continued the clinical health training because I was going to be a registered nurse. There were a couple of days that were quite hard; I still remember the day where I had to take care of two children who had been in a car accident. One of them had a number of cuts at his body while the second had a broken arm. But the joy that I felt afterwards was worth it. Both of the children were discharged a couple days later with smaller injuries. My senior was actually a senior male nurse named Takeshi. He was a bit serious at first glance but he was more easy-going when I got to knew him. He had been a nurse for nearly ten years and had mainly worked as a floor nurse or an E.R. nurse.

I passed my exams all though my grades were only mediocre (which made me somewhat upset). My dad told me that I should try to plan a bit better and not put myself down so much. He had seen the hard work that most of the nurses had to go through during their internships. My last year arrived, which was when I would get my license. I now had to practice everything I had learned under Takeshi's watchful eyes. This year, I got the chance to assist during an operation too. My memories about that room is still fresh in my mind (partially because it was only three years ago). The tension was not that high since it was a routine operation, but I found it highly exciting. Then was my examination day where my nerves were all high...I really wanted to get my license. I had tried to plan better like my father had told me and it had worked out for my part. But the people who evaluated me were the ones with the power. I still remember how happy I was when they told me that I had gotten my license. My grades were slightly above average, which made it even better. To say that my father was proud would be an understatement…he was just as happy as I was. I went out with my classmates the upcoming weekend and we celebrated almost the entire night. We had all reason to do so because ALL of us had passed the exam.

* * *

Then was the challenge of finding a job. Good thing that Japan was in need of nurses or else I would have struggled a bit. My father helped me out a bit as well because he had some good connections. After sending out some applications, I went on a trip with my friends to Okinawa that we had planned earlier that spring. My father then called on the fifth day on our trip. A hospital in Toyohashi was apparently in need of some nurses. I told him that I would look at it the next day. I borrowed my friends computer and looked at the job ad. It turned out that three nurses at the hospital had quit their job for various reasons. One had moved to the U.S. with her army husband, one had retired while the last one had gotten a job at a school. I applied for one of the open position before I went back to Tokyo a couple days later. The hospital then called me at the end of the month; they wanted an interview with me in two days. I asked my aunt if I could stay at her apartment for two days due to a job search. She said yes and I went there the next day. My nerves were at an all-time high when I went to I was elated and told this to my dad. He helped me to get a somewhat nice apartment plus paying parts of the deposit. I had now started my adult life…

The first few months were tough for a number of reasons. I had to work around the clock plus that the shifts could be as long as ten hours. Not to mention that some of my patients could have quite disturbing diseases (read: vomiting blood or wounds that looked like something taken from a zombie movie). I eventually told my senpai, who was fortunately a quite understanding woman. We talked it out and things eventually got better. My shifts are still long, but I can cope a bit better because I know the people I work with. Some of my classmates are living in cities that are not too far away and we visit each other when we can. I try to visit my father during the family holidays such as the obon festival or New Years Eve. Even though he is a senior doctor now, he makes sure to take a couple days off during those holidays. I also meet up with my friends from school during those holidays as well. Two of them are working as accountants now while one has becomed a Japanese teacher. One thing that is a bit annoying is that my dad is always asking about my...ahem...relationships. I feel a bit embarrassed about that because I have had a crush on a nice doctor from Kyoto who is only two years older than me. I hope he is single but he has never mentioned having a girlfriend (fingers crossed). Perhaps my New Years resolution should be to ask him out on a date?

* * *

I sighed as I pulled my suitcase with me towards the nearby train station. 'Thank Kami that I only have one train left until I'm home' I thought as I brushed some snow out of my fringe. A small wave of relief went through my heart as I saw the train station right ahead of me. I jogged a little and entered the station moments later. The warmth wrapped around me like a blanket.

I soon bought a ticket before I went down to the station. The train was already there, so I ran onto it as fast as I could. My eyes looked around in the wagon…I swore I saw a head of pink hair. The vehicle started moving three minutes later at high speed. My fingers moved rapidly as I sent my father a text message about my current location. Azabu-Jûban station arrived ten minutes later after the text message icon popped up at my phone. 'Glad to hear that you're on time. I'll meet you at the station together with my parents. Dad'. I grinned since I did not see my grandparents that often (maybe three times a year or so). "Next stop: Azabu-Jûban" announced the voice at the intercom. The suitcase was a bit heavy but I managed to get a decent spot in front of the exit. I left the train with the others and went up the staircase.

My eyes looked around for my dad. "Hotaru-chan!" called a voice from the right side. I turned around only to see my dad approaching me. "DAD!" I exclaimed with a huge smile at my face. He jogged towards me before we shared a hug. "I'm so glad to see you. But I think you're in need of some good food plus some rest. Looks like you've had some tough night shifts" stated my dad. "Yup…you really can't cure stupid" I replied before I hugged my grandparents. We then drove home to our house where my grandmother had cooked a nice fish dish with my favorite noodles.

Being reborn was a bit tough at the start but I feel much better now. I have a job that I love, I have traveled to a lot of places, I have good friends plus that I've tried out new things. Living this life is awesome…I won't regret it when I die one day in the future.

* * *

Sorry if the ending was a bit cheesy. But I'm a postgraduate myself who knows how it feels to come home for Christmas/Easter/summer after a tough period at school. I hope you enjoyed this and have a happy February!


	7. Chapter 7: Haruka Tenou & Michuru Kaiou

All right guys! This is going to be the second last chapter in my story. I decided to give Haruka and Michuru a special chapter for two reasons. One: They have been a couple from the beginning to the end of their appearances in the anime. Two: They were one of the first same-gender couples in anime (which is quite unique considering that Sailor Moon was one of the first animes to be shown in the U.S).

Their story will be a bit different because they can't have babies the natural way plus that they are a bit older than the others. I hope they are not too out of character. Note: Haruka and Michuru will refer to each other as girlfriends during the story. I will not post anything graphic, but there will be mentions of kissing for example. Don't read if you are not fine with that. This story is longer since this is about two people instead of one.

Things to look for:

Minato and Meguro: Two wards in central Tokyo.

Hokkaido: The northern most island of Japan. Some of the famous cities there are Sapporo and Hakodate.

Asturias: A violin piece originally written for a piano. The piece was written by Isaac Albeniz.

Au Clair De La Lune: A French folk song. It is a violin piece for beginners.

Hamamatsu: A city in the Shizuoka prefecture. The city has been famous for it's industry, particularly in cars as well as musical instruments. Both Yamaha and Suzuki have their headquarters here. Honda was actually founded in this city.

Now is the time for letting Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune tell their story! What have they been up to for the last years?

* * *

**Chapter seven: The sailors of flight and affinity.**

'Aaaaah. This is lovely' I thought as I sat in the back of the concert hall. The classical music soothed my nerves a bit, which had been a bit tense for the last couple days. My girlfriend had been selected to play Tchaikovsky's Violin concerto in D major along with the top fourteen violinists in Japan that were below 50 years old. I applauded for the pianist who had just played a famous piece by Chopin before I sat down again. "Up next is Tchaikovsky's Violin concerto in D major that will be performed by the top fifteen violinists in Japan! Give them a warm welcome" told a host for TV Tokyo. A smile formed at my face…I had forgotten that this show would be sent live on television. This was a good thing since people who were not here got a chance to listen to the music.

I applauded while I tried to spot Michuru in the crowd. My eyes then caught the sight of the familiar head of sea foam green hair that sat at the middle row. They started playing and I could not help but to be in awe of their performance. Hearing her play violin was nothing new; I had heard her play that instruments hundreds of times for the twenty years I had known her. But Michuru had practiced quite a bit more during the last couple weeks and had even had a private lesson with a Dutch music teacher. I leaned back while I looked at some people who were sitting in front of me. My eyes spotted five young women in their best dresses. The first one was wearing a cobalt blue number, the second girl had a pale tangerine dress, girl number three's dress was cream white, the fourth member had chosen a scarlet one and the last dress was emerald green. That colour combination made me think of a very special girl gang I met in my early high school years…

* * *

Not much happened after we had defeated Galaxia. Our youngest soldier Rini went back home because she had completed her sailor scout training. We were both sad despite that we did not know her that well. The number of missions after we defeated Galaxia rapidly decreased to none. We were both attending Tokyo Gakuen High school after Mugen had been demolished a year earlier. This had originally been a boy's school, so quite a number of guys suspected me to be one of them. I did not mind that but I did not like that they were drooling over Michuru.

Setsuna had been appointed as a guardian for Hotaru while her father was in therapy. We allowed them to live in our house because we had plenty of room. Neither of us talked with the other sailor soldiers that much after the fight with Galaxia. Not because we did not wanted to, but we simply did not meet each other that often. We went to different schools and lived in different wards. All of the inner sailor soldiers lived in the Minato ward while we resided in the Meguro ward. Both of us were in our second year of high school and it was time to decide what we wanted afterwards. I had thought about becoming a car engineer or something along those lines. Practical subjects like mathematics or physics were my stronger side plus that I liked to fix cars. But the downside was that I wanted to go to university and the competition was quite fierce. Both Nagoya as well as Hiroshima had limited places. The only school left laid in Hokkaido, but what about Michuru?

Michuru had plans on taking on a degree in education and play music at the side. It fit her quite well because she was very good with people of most ages. The fact that Hotaru lived with us for two years contributed to that. We gave her some private lessons (mostly in music), made sure she had everything she had plus attending a couple PTA's from time to time. But there was one issue…Hotaru's mismatched age. Her birth certificate stated she was borne at 6th January 1981 but she was not more than six years old or so. I decided to contact some of my father's friends who worked at a lawyer office. We got a new birth certification after some negotiation combined with a couple white lies. The new certificate now stated that Hotaru was borne at 6th January 1988 instead.

I still kept my membership to the track and field club while my girlfriend was an avid member of the music club. She later became one of the executives during our last year while I opted to train some of the freshmen instead. I have to admit that I was not the kindest coach (I made the girls run outside when it was raining sometimes) but it paid off. Our school ranked number seven in one of the Tokyo high school championships. Considering the fact that there were 26 schools competing, I was quite pleased with the result. My girlfriend however managed to get a spot in some music competitions where musicians all over Tokyo could compete. The competition was rough; there were several skilled musicians in their teens. She managed to get to the quarterfinals right before her eighteenth birthday but lost in the semifinals. I was very happy for her though since she had done a terrific job. A funny thing was that the semifinal found place just two weeks after my running championship. We celebrated by buying some shoes we had always wanted. I bought a pair of low-heel leather shoes (I am 5'9" after all) while my girlfriend bought a pair of sparkly lavender pumps.

We were both still a part of the socialite scene in Tokyo and participated a couple times. I remember one New Year's Eve where we both were playing a musical piece as a part of a concert for some European business people. We got standing ovations when the concert was over plus that we had a great time. It sadly reminded me that both of us had some practicing to do when it came to our English skills as well. I decided to sign up for cram school in English, physics as well as mathematics to make sure that I could get into university. It was a bit tough but it was a plus that Michuru was in my English classes. My grades did not become much better despite that my understanding for the subject had increased. I then decided to do a bit more revising, which did the trick. My grades were far from the top five in the class but at least I was in the top 15. This was not bad because we were 35 students in our class.

Next up was the entrance exams for our universities. I had to take three; one in mathematics, one in physics plus one in English. Michuru had English, society knowledge as well as Japanese. We studied quite a bit in advance since we had somewhat different schedules. Our exams were spread over two weeks in total, usually with two or three days in between. My feelings were a bit haywire since this could actually decide my future. We got our results five weeks later. I had gotten a surprisingly good grade in physics, a not so bad result in mathematics and a nice result in English. Michuru had done great at her Japanese exam and had done better than me in English. Her scores on her society knowledge exam however were lower than expected.

Our next part of our journey in university meant that we had to move to Hokkaido. I had only been there a couple times on skiing holidays while my girlfriend had some relatives living in Hakodate. We decided to sell our house in Tokyo to a group of friends who invested in property. Michuru contacted her cousin and asked him if he knew about anyone who sold apartments. He did not, so both of us then tried to find an apartment we could live in. A house would be too big since Hotaru and Setsuna did not live with us any longer. Both of them had now moved to the mansion that the Tomoe family lived in. It took a while until we found an apartment that suited our tastes. It happened to be located on the top floor on a five story building not too far away from the university. The apartment had two bedrooms; we probably needed a guest bedroom just in case. We were quite fond of the living room since it had a nice view. It was perfect for a creative soul like Michuru. The kitchen as well as the bath was a little small but we were only two people. Not to mention that this place would be MUCH cheaper to live in than the house we had in Tokyo.

* * *

University turned out to be a nice experience for both of us. The majority of the students on my course were men, but it did not mind me that much. I did look quite a lot like them after all. My girlfriend on the other hand had the opposite situation at her course. A majority of her classmates were female. She did however assure me that most of the girls there did not catch her eye. And many of them were most likely straight anyways. The engineering studies were not a walk in the park though; I had to do quite a bit of work. It was not unusual for me to get to school at 8 AM and not be home before 5 PM in the afternoon after some exercising. I'm the type of person who gets the stress out by running or strenuous exercise. My girlfriend on the other hand preferred to take out her stress in the pool or on her violin. Let's just say that I will NEVER associate "Asturias" with anything not remotely connected to school papers or exams ever again!

One of the positive sides was that I did not have as much assignments because we had so long days at school. Michuru on the other hand had written assignments nearly twice a month since she had a smaller timetable. Making time for romance was a bit hard and I remember that we had some arguments from a time to another. We managed to work it out eventually…I did not wanted to lose my girlfriend because we were studying for different university degrees. We decided to make a deal: both of us decided to work as hard as we could during the school week and had downtime during the weekend. It turned out to be a good idea except from the weeks we studied for our exams. We were a bit skeptical about having an open relationship since we had received some nasty comments in the past. The inner sailor soldiers had been surprisingly mature about the case, but that did not apply to some of our former classmates. I still get a bit angry when I remember the girls making gagging noises when we were close or guys asking us to kiss each other.

Both of us joined a number of clubs during our time at university. I joined the track and field club while my girlfriend signed up for the school orchestra. Both of us decided to join the dance club since we wanted to do something together. I still smile when I remember how I struggled to do the swing or foxtrot while Michuru seemed to be a borne dancer. But I knew how clueless it was when it came to fixing things…I still laugh when she tries to read the computer manual. I'm glad we have a good insurance since Michuru has nearly killed parts of her Dell laptop sometimes. Some of the highlights during my university years were the trips we had with our clubs to other cities such as Nagasaki and Aomori. Both of us had been to a number of countries all over the world like France or Australia, but domestic trips were just as nice. I then had to apply for internships in Japan after three years to show that I could do my job. My school contacted me after two months and I had gotten an intern job at a company that made car parts for various car brands. Michuru had applied for internships too and had gotten a job at a local high school. The only bad part was that it was at the opposite end of the city. But we were both happy…things were looking good now.

* * *

I was ecstatic when I got the internship at that company since they had a rather good reputation. But my colleagues could have been a bit better. One of my coworkers was a conservative woman in her forties who thought I looked too manly for her tastes. Another was a man who had a somewhat old fashioned vision of women. Granted, he was in his late fifties but I still did not like it. I tried to not respond back and decided to pay attention to what I was there for. Michuru had gotten an internship as an English and music teacher at a local high school. She did not face any of those problems since most of her coworkers were below the age of 45. But my girlfriend admitted that teaching basic music notes to uninterested 16 year olds was a challenge. I decided to ask her for advice about the work situation because I could not hold it any longer. My girlfriend was a bit sad to hear this, but told me that I should try to record what they told me. A part of me was a bit confused about this until she told me that I could show those records to my boss. It was not right to be treated like that by my coworkers as long as I had not upset them and did my job. I was not guilty on either of those, so I decided to give it a go. I went to work next day with a hidden recorder inside my jacket. But I soon found out that it would be more practical if I hid the recorder in my backpacker so I could work unhindered. My colleagues kept teasing me, but I decided to stay calm. All they did was to feed my recorder after all.

I got the evidence I needed and gave my recordings to my boss six weeks later. He was furious when he heard what his two employees said (I still remember how his face looked like). Both of them had to apologize to me and I did not get any snide comments or rude remarks later on. Michuru had a good time at her school as an English and music teacher. She got better around with her students thanks to some work on her "cool" persona. A couple of her students had even seen her at TV and asked her if she could perform for them. My girlfriend decided to use this to her advantage. She told them that she could do a small concert after the Christmas mid-terms if they did their best during her lessons. That trick straightened out their behavior a bit, but there were still a couple students who acted up. Her English classes were a bit trickier because the language is different from Japanese. Michuru then told me that a majority of her students struggled quite a bit with pronunciation. I then asked her if there were some things they were interested in such as TV series or fashion. She told me that many of them liked popular music or drama shows. I suggested that she could teach the kids about how they should pronounce English sounds by learning them songs or discuss what happened at their favorite drama shows. It turned out to be a great idea; most of the kids apparently improved their pronunciation a bit by singing. The singing gave them a better sentence melody while the discussions made them less shy about talking.

Both of us had a rather tough time during our second year of our internship. I was given more responsibility at work while my girlfriend had to teach more 'challenged' classes. When I mean 'challenged', I mean classes where some students should not under any circumstances be given caffeine and/or sugar. My work day usually started at 8:30 AM and ended at 6:30 PM. If it had not been for the care Michuru gave me, I would probably have starved to death during my last year. She had shorter days than me but still had a good amount of work to do. We promised each other to go on a well-deserved vacation when we got our internships approved. I decided to search for a job right away when I was working for the company so I did not have to worry. Fortunately, there were a number to choose from since Japan had a number of car companies. I then landed a job in Hamamatsu at a company that worked with Suzuki motors. Michuru was happy for me and tried to find jobs in the same city or one that was close. However, the job market turned out to be a bit tougher than she had realized. She eventually got a job as a music teacher at a music school in a suburb in Hamamatsu, which was good. We got our internships approved and booked a trip to Fiji. Both of us had wanted to go there, so we enjoyed our vacation quite a lot. It was an exotic place with white beaches as well as bright blue water. We did some diving plus that we participated in a small treasure hunt with the other tourists.

* * *

But one thing became clear when we came back to Hokkaido. We had to find a place in Hamamatsu and sell our apartment (or rent it out). Fortunately, both of us had done some research at the renting market prior to our vacation. I found a nice one-room apartment that was not too far away from my girlfriend's school and it was relatively new. We had a lot of people who wanted to rent our apartment but not all of them were that reliable. Some of them were teenagers or people in their early twenties that had just moved away from home. Others were people who appeared a bit shady (one smelled suspiciously of something I had seen in the chemistry lab). We decided to rent out our apartment to a couple of responsible-looking exchange students from Korea who were in their early twenties. Both of them were in their last year of their bachelor and were opting for a master. We managed to find an apartment in Hamamatsu that suited our needs quite well. It took two weeks longer than we thought since we had to pack down some of the furniture when we left.

At the first day of my job, I was introduced to my team of work mates. There were three men and one woman at my team excluding myself. Our senior was a man in his late thirties who had just been promoted to a senior engineer. Michuru on the other hand had gotten two jobs. The first one was a music teacher at a high-profile music academy while her second job was a 50% teaching job at a senior high school. I enjoyed my job at the company; it was great to make car parts that would be useful. One of my fondest memories is when we had done some major improvement to a type of car brakes. The brakes would be able to handle more stress plus that they would last a bit longer. We earned some good newspaper coverage plus that we got a bonus to our pay. One of the fondest moments Michuru has was when five of her students were performing "Au Clair De La Lune" on a Christmas concert. She had taught all five of them this song and was so proud when they played it in front of their parents. I remember watching the concert; it was actually quite a joy to see the children perform. The Korean students moved out three years later and we decided to sell it so we could buy something in Hamamatsu. It took a while until Michuru got a phone call from a friend of hers. A colleague of this friend needed a place to live because she had divorced. She got the house, but it was too big for her. We decided to meet this woman so we could see how she was. The woman turned out to be in her mid-thirties and had a stable job in an advertising company. She bought the apartment, which meant that we could buy one in Hamamatsu. We had lived there for nearly three years after all plus that we had steady jobs. I spoke to the person who rented us the apartment and asked if there was a chance we could buy it. He was a bit skeptical first since we were only 26 years old, but I managed to convince him. Michuru was over the moon to hear this since she had wanted to settle.

* * *

But there was also another issue to be addressed…children. We had both talked a bit about this since we had been together for nearly ten years. There were not many options since none of us was a guy. One was to adopt, but I was a bit in doubt due to our same-sex relationship. Another possibility could be that Michuru or I could get something from a sperm donor. But a third possibility then presented itself a year later when Michuru had to talk with the director of the musical school she worked at. The director wondered if she was interested in being support contact for one of her students. Her student's parents had just divorced and the father got the custody right because the mother had moved to another city. He had contacted Michuru because she had been his music teacher for three years. She said yes, which meant that we would have a nine year old named Yahiko visiting us two days per week. This would last up until he turned 18. Yahiko turned out to be an average boy and I was happy to have him there. He was a bit cheeky however; I remember that he once wrapped some of my tools in toilet paper. But we had a lot of fun together as well. We went to the zoo or to the cinema if we did not spend the evening back home. I smile when I remember the time we went to the bowling alley…that little boy crushed us with two strikes plus several spares. We then agreed that being a support contact for Yahiko was enough for us since having a child would be a bit too stressful for us.

Both of us got more challenges at our job at that time; I got more difficult tasks while my girlfriend was given more challenging classes. We both liked it since it felt good to earn our own money. Even though we were a part of the upper class family back home in Tokyo, we did not want to waste anything. Yahiko soon became a part of our weird family since he spent most Thursdays and Fridays with us. I remember when he asked us about what girls liked when he started at lower secondary school. I was a bit of a loss, but I luckily had Michuru to explain him that. Let's just say that he got himself a wonderful girlfriend named Eiko when he turned 14. Both of us tried to learn Yahiko on how to treat his girlfriend as well as focusing on his school work. When he turned 15, he graduated from middle school. I and Michuru were proud of him since he had gotten good grades as well as getting into a good high school. He wanted to study chemistry on university, so he wanted to get at least decent grades at high school. Both of us felt a bit bad since we were not extremely skilled in chemistry. I was then promoted at my job as a senior engineer, which was awesome. Michuru got a higher position at her job too in the form of a nice pay rise. We spoke to Yahiko's father and told that we would pay some of his cramming school lessons. He was a bit emotional after that; it was tough to be a single parent despite that he had a decent job. We sent in a couple of applications for various cramming schools my girlfriend recommended and Yahiko got accepted into one of them. It was the third best cramming school, so we knew that he would do well. Both of us were at a comfortable position at our job now since we had been employed for eight years or so. But we only have a little more than a year left until Yahiko starts at university…that will be so weird.

* * *

The concert was over and I went down to the entrance hall with Yahiko. "What do you think of Michuru?" I inquired. "Not too bad. But it was not my taste" replied the boy. I smiled as we entered the crowded room. The musicians would be here soon after the press coverage. "Are you thirsty?" I inquired after I had noticed the small bar. "Yeah…a sake or beer would be nice" said Yahiko. I sent him a sharp stare. "You won't get any alcohol tonight mister" I answered. The teenager scowled a little, but muttered something about a Coke. I went towards the bar and ordered a shot of sake plus two Cokes. "Here you go!" told the cheery bartender. "Thanks" I replied as I handed her the money. "Thanks Haruka…it's really warm in here" sighed the male after I had given him the glass. "You're welcome Yahiko-kun. Oh, there's Michuru" I informed as I saw her coming towards us. "Thanks for showing up tonight" she said before kissing my cheek. "You're welcome. Here's your sake" I told as I handed her the shot glass. Her sapphire blue eyes brightened as she took the shot glass.

We then left the building so we could drop of Yahiko. His grandmother was visiting, so he had to get home earlier than usual. "Bye Yahiko! Have a nice weekend" I told after parking the car outside the apartment complex. "Bye Haruka and Michuru. Thanks for taking me to the concert" replied the guy and left the car. We then drove to a Japanese sushi restaurant since I knew that Michuru loved sashimi. I ordered a chicken teriyaki with lots of salad at the side before we drove back home. "Home sweet home" I muttered as I entered the dark apartment. "I just need to take my clothes off first. Could you please prepare the food?" inquired my girlfriend. "Sure" I replied before entering the kitchen. I took the food out of the bag and poured it onto the dinner plate. It did not take long until Michuru exited the bathroom; she was wearing her pajamas but had no makeup. I smiled; my life had become quite a bit different since my sailor days. I had a fantastic job, a girlfriend who I loved plus that I lived in a nice city where we took care of a teenager boy who would soon graduate high school. Seems like the vast skies and oceans can create wonderful things when they meet…


	8. Chapter 8: Setsuna Meioh

Hello everyone! This is going to be the last chapter in this story. I would like to thank those who have read and reviewed my work so far. I'm just getting back into fanfiction after a long hiatus, so there may be more stories coming up.

This chapter is probably my shortest since Sailor Pluto is already an adult in Sailor Moon Super. From what I've checked, she had already started on her college degree in Sailor Stars. Souichi is the first name of Hotaru's father by the way. I was not sure of how tall Setsuna is (her height apparently varied in the manga) and I made it up. Sorry if it's way off!

Last but not least is Sailor Pluto! How has she been doing since we last met her?

Things to look for:

Foundation day: One of the four main holidays during the calendar year. One reflects on the establishment of Japan and love for the nation at this day.

Aomori: A city that is at the northern part of the main island Honshu. It is a very old city that has been settled since prehistoric times.

Kami: Japanese for 'God'.

Kanji: A set of characters imported from Chinese and one of the three scripts used in Japan. Is often used for nouns, adjectives or names.

* * *

**Chapter eight: The sailor of revolution.**

"I'm home!" I called as I entered the apartment I lived in. A small meowing sound could be heard as my black cat Chibi approached me. "Hello there Chibi" I greeted as I removed my clothes. Today was the last working day before the weekend, which would be extra long due to the Foundation day on Monday. A sigh escaped my lips as I turned on the radio music channel and entered the bathroom. I turned on the radio while I was there (I enjoy listening to music when I shower or bath) while I made the bath ready.

Aomori was a bit cold at this time of the year and a warm bath or visiting the local hot spring was that I truly enjoyed. 'Hm…which one should I pick?' I wondered as I looked at the different bathing foam. I decided for the one that smelled like orange mixed with a bit of cinnamon in it. Suddenly, I remember that I had not checked the mail.

I then picked up the envelopes that laid in my messenger bag. 'Electricity bill…magazine…another bill…some lame commercial…huh?'. I raised a dark green eyebrow in confusion when I saw the blue envelope with some spidery writing on it. Once I got back in my apartment, I opened up the letter. The content appeared to be a charcoal gray card with some lavender kanji on it. 'Thank you for the birthday gift Setsuna-senpai! Haruka' read the print on the inside. A small smile appeared at my face; her birthday had been for just two weeks ago.

'They're all getting older by the day…' I thought as I looked at the picture at the wall. It was a picture of all the sailor soldiers as well as the sailor starlights that had been taken fifteen years ago. All of the inner soldiers had grown up, finished their education plus having children. Haruka and Michuru lived together in Hamamatsu while Hotaru worked as a nurse in Toyohashi. It felt weird that they were adults now…the time where we transformed into sailor soldiers was not so long in the distance.

* * *

Rini went back home when we had defeated Galaxia. It felt quite weird for me because I had been a sort of second guardian to her (all though Usagi did a very good job on it). It felt a bit sad, but this gave me a bit more time to focus on my college studies. But I still remained a guardian for Hotaru because her father was in therapy. He was only allowed to see her during the weekends plus the major holidays. Me as well as Haruka and Michuru had to take care of her until the rehab center gave him the green light. One of the issues we had to solve was a new birth certificate that matched her current age. Luckily, Haruka had some contacts that were lawyers who fixed that for us. I attended PTA's plus other school events when I could since I was her guardian. Thank Kami that I lived with two people who had a good economy or else it would have been more difficult. Michuru gave her private music lessons while Haruka took her to the swimming hall, skating rink plus other sport places. My interest for fashion meant that Hotaru got a lot of custom-made clothes as well. Some of them were a bit horrendous (I still cringe when I remember that midi skirt I made for her) while others became quite a success. I enjoyed taking care of her since I actually had a somewhat strong maternal instinct.

But I still had to think about my studies; I was a sophomore student in physics at that time. To be a guardian as well as a student was not easy despite that Hotaru was not an infant. I did not want to burden Michuru or Haruka either since they were four years younger than me (not chronologically, mind you). There were a number of evenings or mornings where I worked with my coursework before Hotaru woke up or after she had fallen asleep. I was glad that Michuru and Haruka took her out sometimes or played with her when I was busy. My social life suffered a bit, but I could manage. Being the guardian of time was not a job that meant that you could hang out with friends. We did not spend much time with the inner scout after we had defeated Galaxia. It was not because we hated them, but we just did not have much in common apart from being sailor soldiers. The house we lived in was in a different ward plus that we attended different schools. I was even a level above them in the latter case. When I reached my junior year, I told my supervisor that I had to become a part-time student. It turned out to be a smart decision; I got less coursework plus that I could spend a bit more time with Hotaru. Haruka and Michuru did not mind that I cleaned up the house once a week either.

Things changed eight months later when I had to meet the therapist who worked with Souichi Tomoe. It appeared that he had made a full recovery and would most likely become able to care for his daughter in a couple months. A part of me felt a bit sad since I had taken care of her for so long, but I was happy as well. Hotaru would be able to spend time with her parent now while I could focus at my studies. I still remember the look that Haruka as well as Michuru had at their faces when I told them this. The former had a look that still makes me laugh (Haruka has always been good at making unintentionally funny faces) while the other had sincere joy in her eyes. The little girl was sent to her father three months later and I could continue as a full time student when this year was over. Despite being a fashion fan, I have always loved how practical physics are. I am after all guarding something that can be measure in some degree. Souichi then offered to pay my tuition for the remaining time of my studies plus half of the rent on the apartment I rented with a classmate. I was quite flustered, but the doctor said it was the least thing he could do. He had been a poor college student himself plus that I had been a guardian for his daughter for two years now.

* * *

I decided to apply for an internship while hoping that time as well as luck was at my side (pun intended). After I had sent out some applications, I got replies from a couple of companies. I then decided to work with a company who needed lab technicians. Working in a laboratory is something that I really liked and I decided to go with my gut feeling. The latter was something I had learned as a sailor soldier. There were not many women there, but I got a female advisor named Chiyo who had worked there for about seven years. She was quite a nice woman plus that she told me to just give her a call if something happened. I have to admit that it happen a couple of times; I still remember the incident about the odd sample that turned out to be a cell mixed with snot gunk. Not to mention the time where I accidentally got a lab coat that belonged to my male colleague. I did not find out until someone started to call me Hitoshi instead of Setsuna. But we did a lot of good things too; I was allowed to participate in some exciting experiments that involved sound waves for instance. My role here was to check the frequency in the sounds before comparing them with the decibel. It was a very intriguing experiment and working in a team was a useful experience. Not to mention that working with things like these was something I had wanted to do for a lifetime.

One of the major projects I participated in was one that involved different plants. This was an experiment that a leading company that worked in the food industry wanted us to test out. I felt a bit nervous since this experiment could provide some important funding for the company that I worked for. Chiyo and I got the roles of installing equipment such as thermostats prior to the experiments. Afterwards, I had to assist three of the scientists in their observations. This job was harder than I thought because it required keen eyes to see the changes that could be seen before and after the process. Last but not least was the job of proofreading some of the reports that the scientists had written down. It was clear that Japanese was not their strongest subject; many of the reports had a number of typos as well as incomplete sentences in them. Let's just say that I drank quite a bit of coffee during that time in order to stay awake. Thank Kami that we had some computers with spellcheckers at my job or else I would have died. I felt like a dead woman at the end of the period, but my colleagues praised me for the work. Not to mention that the company was very happy with the job we had done and gave us a nice check. I was happy as well; it felt quite good to be a part of a project like that.

During the summer break, I decided to catch up with some theory. Some days were spent at the library reading books while I had some small experiment reviews at other days. But I got time to go on a vacation to Taiwan in the midst of all this. I had never been there and I was quite excited when the airplane landed at the airport. The vacation was mostly a sightseeing one, but I was not a person who really loved to party. I had been to a number of countries earlier in my life (some of them had even changed their name) and I was happy to have visited a nation like Taiwan. They had been occupied a number of times in the history, which had put its mark on the island. Reality hit me when I got back to Tokyo. I would be at school half of the time while the other half would be spent at the company. My second year at the internship became harder because I got more responsibility at the lab. I had to assist the scientists in more complex experiments plus being one of the main contributors to easier ones. This process was slightly hard to adjust to, but I was happy that I had spent my summer reading up. It would have been significantly harder if I had not prepared myself. The lectures at school were a bit of a relief since they provided me with information I could use later on.

* * *

But attending university consisted of more than internships and lessons. I joined the fashion club at our school in my second year and I was often in some of the districts in Tokyo that had quite odd fashion styles. We then tried to recreate some of the clothes, but adding our own twist into the mix. Due to my height of 5'6", I was often chosen to be one of the models. I did not mind this since I liked to display what we had made. A special event then came up during my senior year when the fashion clubs at different universities decided to have a fashion week. I was chosen to design an evening dress with a design of my choice. My mind was racing around a lot due to the upcoming exams and I found it hard to focus. But I then got some inspiration when I looked at the photograph we had taken after the defeat of Galaxia. I then decided to make a sleeveless dress that had all the elements of the sailor soldiers in it. The main colour of dress would be white, but it had straps that had rhinestones in five different colours. Those colours were a mix of scarlet red, cerulean blue, emerald green as well as tangerine orange. I then decided to use a dip dye technique at the bottom of the dress.. The four inches at the bottom now had a blend of pale sapphire blue, sea foam green as well as lavender purple in it. I did not see the point in adding black because I would model the dress myself. It turned out to be a success; a lot of people commented on how creative it looked. I was happy to hear that…the sailor soldiers had been my inspiration after all.

My senior year was coming to an end and I decided to apply for internships all over Japan. So far, I had two references. One from my intern company that told what I had done plus one from Souchi that told that I was a responsible person. I did not have much that held me back in Tokyo; Haruka as well as Michuru had moved to Hokkaido to continue their education. Hotaru was in middle school and had a healthy father who could take care of her. All of the sailor soldiers had started at their internships or were busy with their university degrees. The replies from the companies arrived a couple weeks later. Most of them were stationed in larger cities such as Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto as well as Chiba. But the one that I was most interested in was a company that was in Aomori. I knew that the living costs there were lower than in the larger cities plus that I have had enough of multi-million metropolises like Tokyo. One week later, I went to Aomori for an interview. The company worked with physics related to the nature and thought my internship could be related. I agreed and they told me that they would contact me within a week. Five days later, they told me that I had gotten a job. I was thrilled since this was something I had wanted to do for a while. My company gave me some advices on where to find a place to live and I decided on a small terraced house at the north end. The person who had lived there earlier had now been hospitalized. Later on, I adopted a cat because it was a bit lonely to live alone in a house. I decided to name her Chibi after Chibi-chibi moon.

* * *

The song that played at the radio changed its melody a bit and shook me out of my reverie. I put the card from Haruka at the shelf where I displayed cards that the sailor soldiers had sent me. 'Oh…I better check the bath' I thought as Chibi let out a yawn. I entered the bathroom, but the tub was not as full as I had initially feared.

My hand turned off the tap before I closed the door. To let my pet into the bathroom was a recipe for disaster since she did not like to bath. I removed all of my clothing and stepped into the warm water. A sigh escaped my lips as I lowered myself into the warm water that now had a lot of orange foam in it. The radio then switched its tune to some relaxing jazz song that some American musician had made. I was not a huge fan of jazz, but I usually listened to songs like that when I needed to relax. This was exactly how I felt about how it was at present. My job was secure, I had a steady income, there was not war going on in Japan (let's just say that the samurai era in Japan was quite tough), the child I had taken care of was now an adult, all the sailor soldiers had good lives with family as well as children plus that it was the start of a new year. A new year always brings new beginnings and opportunities with it. I know that it sounds cheesy, but I should know this. I have lived through several centuries after all.

* * *

And THAT is the end of this story! I hope you enjoyed reading through the chapters. Sorry if the stories were not as exciting or lived up to your expectations. Please review my story and keep in mind that constructive criticism is welcomed :D


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